Everything Changes
by kmul27
Summary: Rose and Lissa decide to run away again. This time something happens, but can Lissa get to Rose in time to save her life? Pre- Shadow Kiss
1. Chapter 1

Everything Changes

Summary: Rose and Lissa decide to run away again. This time something happens, but can Lissa get to Rose in time to save her life? Pre- Shadow Kiss

Chapter ONE: Leaving

Rose POV

"Rose, are you sure about this?" Lissa asked me for the hundredth time tonight. We were in my room planning our next escape.

"Liss, yes, I'm sure. We need to do this. You've been in pain ever since your break up with Christian and if you want to get into a good college we can't stay here. You know that, you need to stop being scared. You should know by now I'm not going to let anything happen to you. Don't you trust me?" I could feel how perplexed she was as to why I was suddenly saying we needed to leave, so I added my reasoning. Well, at least the reasons I was going to let her know. I never liked Christian much, but he's good for Lissa, and now that they broke up that little dark seed is back in her. There's one more reason, I need to do this for me. Last winter when everything went to hell and my world was turned upside down, well I'm not completely healed from that. With everything that happened in Spokane, Mason's death and me killing his murderers. Why couldn't I love Mason? Which brings my next point, Dimitri. I love him, it's forbidden and I have to learn to fall out of love, it's going to be hard because…. well, it's more than just love, we're perfect for each other.

"Of course I trust you, Rose!"

"Then, trust I can get us through this!" I cut her off. She looked at me for a moment before nodding. "Okay, so we're leaving. Now, we just have to make a plan," we talked about what we were going to do once we got out and how we were going to get out. About a half hour before curfew Lissa went to talk to the Moroi by the front door of my dorm, she used her compulsion to be able to spend the night in my dorm room. That way it would be so much easier to just get up and leave in the morning. The only downfall of the plan is that we have to leave during the day, like most Moroi, Lissa is uncomfortable in the sun. She's wearing a hat and borrowing my dark sunglasses, hopefully it's enough to get us to where were going. We decided were going to New York.

Lissa has always wanted to go to New York. I found a, supposedly, great high school, so that's good for Lissa. It's not that big either, which is a bonus for me to watch over her. I helped Lissa pack only what she needed, since it was supposed to be only over night the bag couldn't be huge. When we were walking back to my dorm we ran into Dimitri, "Hello, Guardian Belikov," Lissa said formally smiling. I had been avoiding him, only seeing or speaking to him at practices, just nodded.

"Princess, Rose, it's almost curfew. Where are you going?" he eyed Lissa bag.

"Oh, I'm staying in Rose's dorm tonight. Girls sleepover, you know," she smiled.

"Rose, can I speak to you for a second?" Dimitri asked.

"Oh uh, sure, I guess. Here, Liss," I said handing her my keys. "What's up?" I asked when Lissa left.

"You have been avoiding me." He said.

"Yeah, I have. I'm sorry, but I… " I trailed off.

"Roza, I know you're going through a lot, but you can't avoid things forever. You can't avoid me forever."

"A couple months ago that's all you wanted me to do, we still can't be together. I can't keep putting myself through this pain. You know I love you, but going through this is killing me." I looked around to make sure no one was around, since there was none I put my hand on his cheek. "You know I love you," I repeated.

"I'm sorry Rose, I'm sorry about Mason and everything that ever happened with us. I guess you should go back to the princess before she worries." I took my hand away and started walking away, "Wait, Roza?" I turned, "I love you, too."

"Well, who wouldn't?" I laughed and he just shook his head, "Goodbye, Dimitri." I sprinted back to my room; Lissa was sitting on my bed reading some book about something we were supposed to be reading in English. "Um, Liss, I'm just going to get a shower really quick," I grabbed a towel and all my shampoo and conditioners and stuff and headed to the bathroom at the end of the hall. I didn't really need to shower, I hadn't taken one after training this morning, but I needed to be by myself. Lissa see's me as this strong, indestructible person that I'm just not. I put on a front for her, I don't want her to see how much I hurt, and right now I can't let her see me cry. Five minutes later I was fine, I washed my face so you couldn't see that I had been crying. "I'm back!" I smiled walking in the door.

"Hey, Rose!" I closed the door behind me and locked it, "We should probably get some sleep, and we're leaving in a couple hours." I nodded. I had shared a room with a senior novice, but she had graduated so I had the room all to myself. Liss slept in my extra bed, while I tried, and failed, to sleep in my own. What if we get caught? What if it's Dimitri going on guard? We had decided it was best to leave at noon, when shifts were changing. But, what if it's Dimitri coming on duty and he catches us? Damn Rose get a hold of yourself! Be strong for Lissa, you have to do this for Lissa, they come first. I slept for about an hour before Lissa jolted me awake, "Rose, come on! It's time to go!"

"Okay, grab your bag, don't forget the sunglasses or hat. You ready?" she nodded. I slung my bag across my shoulder and unlocked my door. The Moroi at the main door had fallen asleep and since we were a minute behind schedule the guards outside the doors were already gone too. We kept close to the building, with me leading, looking around the last corner, the coast was clear. "Come on, Liss, run!" I whispered. We ran towards the front gate, which were about to close. We had planned this around the gates a little too, when they were open and closed. Right now Moroi are bringing in their feeders. Narrowly slipping past the gate was probably the hardest part of getting out. Now we just have to hot wire a car, no big deal.

We spotted the fastest car and jimmied the lock, I cracked open the part under the wheel and grabbed the necessary wires. "Do I even want to know why you know how to hot wire a car?" Lissa asked sarcastically.

"No, probably not," I laughed. Since we only had a few more precious seconds before we were caught I gunned the car into start and headed for the highway. It took far too long to get to New York, we were both exhausted by the time we got there and we still had to find a place to stay. We had taken some money out of Lissa's bank account before getting on the train so I checked Lissa into a hotel while I went to look for an apartment.

Finding one was actually a lot easier than I thought it would be. Since we have Lissa's inheritance money we can get a decent apartment by the school without any problem. I made my way back to the hotel as fast as I could, I wanted to make sure Lissa was okay and I needed some sleep. I think I crashed before my head even hit the pillows, I slept for a day nonstop, and Lissa just let me. She said she's a big girl and she can handle herself every once and a while. After having something to eat we went to talk with the landlord for the apartment I had found. At first he was leery about having two young girls as tenants, but with Lissa we can basically get anything we want.

Getting all our stuff wasn't that hard because we didn't really have anything, we'd have to go furniture shopping later. "Hey, Liss, I'm going to go for a run. I need to run everyday, don't let me forget one day, okay?" she nodded. I tied my shoelaces and headed out onto the street towards the park. It's not a very nice day, very cloudy and overcast. I hope it doesn't rain while I'm out here. Out of habit I look at the faces of people around me. Looking for the tell tale red eyes of Strigoi.

I didn't see the red but I did see very familiar eyes. Ivashkov eyes. It was a girl, she hid it well, but I could tell she was Moroi. She looked just like Adrian, only in a woman. I slowed down, "Excuse me, sorry for my interrupting your morning, but are you an Ivashkov?"

Her eyes flickered over towards me, "Uh, yes. No," she started walking away.

"Wait! What does that mean?" I could easily keep up with her.

"It means, I am. But they didn't want me, so I'm out in the world by myself, Dampir. Now, is there something you want, or are you just trying to annoy me?"

"I'm sorry I don't mean to annoy you, it's just you look like some one who… you look like a friend." I didn't know how to categorize Adrian in my life. A friend? An acquaintance? Some random guy I know who likes to flirt with me?

"Adrian Ivashkov. He's my twin brother, he doesn't know it though, and he never will. Here, come with me," I followed her into a small coffee shop. They seem to be everywhere around here. I'm so confused. Adrian has a twin sister, is she a spirit user too? "My name is Adrianna. Our father only wanted a son; he got rid of me as soon as he could. No one even knew about me, except my parents and the doctors, of course, I almost didn't find out. But, you don't need to know about me, who are you, and why are you here?"

"My name is Rose. I can't tell you much else, can't risk being sent back. I do have a question though. If you live around here, where do you get your blood?" I whispered my question.

Adrianna laughed, "Rose, look around you. Moroi and feeders are all around you. This is a place for that type of thing. I figured you'd ask about that sooner or later. Oh, and they aren't looking for you yet," she smiled.

"What?" who isn't looking for me? Well, I hope nobody is looking for me because when people come looking for me it tends to get messy.

"St. Vlad's people. They will be soon though, when they get a lead. It won't be coming from me, so don't worry," she was still smiling.

"Then how do you know that?" I'm still so confused.

"Like my brother, I'm a spirit user. I know things; predict the future, if you will. It doesn't always work out like I see it, but most the time it does. Just like I know you want me to go meet Lissa Dragomir."

"That's what I was about to ask, yes… so, do you want to come. I know she would love to meet you. She'll have so many questions. You don't have to," I stood up, either way I was ready to go.

"I'll come," she stood too. I lead the way to the Lissa and my new apartment, making small talk as we went along. It wasn't that bad, she's nothing like Adrian and she doesn't seem to have any problems with insanity at all. She doesn't drink it away either, she's completely sober. I wonder how she does it.

Opening the door I say, "Well, here we are. Liss, I'm home!"

"You're back sooner than I expected… Oh, hello. I'm Lissa Dragomir," Lissa outstretched her hand to shake Adrianna's.

"I'm Adrianna Ivashkov. It's very nice to meet you. Now, before you say anything yes, Adrian is my twin brother, and yes I'm a spirit user. Rose brought me back here because she thought you might want to ask me a few questions," she said very straightforwardly.

"Wait, what! Adrian? The Adrian that lives on campus and drinks all day?" I nod, "I'm so confused. If you're his twin why didn't you two grow up together?"

"Let's just live it at our father isn't exactly a kind man. He only wanted a boy, so he got rid of me. Let's try to keep the questions spirit related." The rest of the conversation was in spirit talk so I just sort of tuned it out. "Well, if there's anything you need here's my cell number," apparently Adrianna was leaving. Wow, it had been four hours.

For the next week we got all our furniture and clothes we would need for the duration of our stay here. Then, we registered for school. Lissa used her power to make sure we would be in the same classes at all times. Since we're not on campus anymore I have to be extra careful with her. Over this time I'm feeling that dark seed growing. I know I can heal it, I just don't know exactly how I do that. "Liss, how do you feel? Like you're happy?"

"Of course I'm happy, Rose! I'm with my best friend, living out on my own, well basically, and I'm eventually going to get into a great college! Why do you ask?"

"Just making sure," at least she's not depressed yet. She smiled and went back to arranging her books. It's the first day of school. It feels kind of weird not knowing everyone in the class. A lot of girls looked at Lissa in envy, it made her feel bad. She didn't like how they were looking at her. At first, she just wanted to think it was because since she was Moroi she had the extra beauty. Then, it started to really piss her off.

"Liss, calm down. They're just jealous. It's not worth your time to be this upset. It'll be okay," I did a one of those little half smile things.

"When did you become the calm, cool, and collected one? Ugh, it's just really pissing me off! Like just leave me alone!" I've never seen her like this. I've seen her sad, depressed, happy, confused, joyous, etc. but never this angry. I don't think she's ever even been angry! Then, I felt it. Like a dark wave hitting me, it was so strong I actually staggered. "Well, whatever. They can think whatever they want," just like that her fury was gone.

The next few weeks were great for Lissa. For me, not so much. I kept randomly getting depressed. I can't let it affect Liss though, it's my problem not hers. I'm probably just overwhelmed from all the honors classes we're in. Yeah, that's it, it has to be, right? But, it's getting worse, "Liss, you're still okay, right? Spirit isn't doing anything crazy to you is it?"

"Actually, no. I feel great. I think being out in the real world is a lot better for my mental health. I think it's because I'm not around so many other Moroi and under so much stress to be perfect," she smiled and laughed.

"Good, that's good," I tried to smile. She was talking about the biology project that we're doing when the squealing started. We both looked up, there is a out of control taxi speeding towards us. I had just managed to push Lissa out of the way before it hit me.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter TWO: I'm Sorry

Lissa POV

"Liss, you're still okay, right? Spirit isn't doing anything crazy to you is it?" Rose asked for the millionth time. She's always worrying now a days.

"Actually, no. I feel great. I think being out in the real world is a lot better for my mental health. I think it's because I'm not around so many other Moroi and under so much stress to be perfect," I said laughing. I love it here. New York is just so exciting and alive. "So what do you want to do for our biology project? What is that?" there was a loud squeal coming from ahead of us.

A taxi was barreling towards, completely out of control. Rose's hands shot out and shoved me out of the way. I reached out to try to grab her to pull her down with me. I was too slow, damn Moroi reflexes. The car hit her full force, "ROSE!!!" I screamed. The taxi finally stopped when it hit her, she rolled off the car, unconscious. I got up and ran over to her, "Rose, Rose, can you hear me? Some one call an ambulance!"

There was a large gash on her forehead and she was bleeding from somewhere else… I don't know. There was a lot of blood. I wanted so badly to heal her, but with all these people around it's impossible. Sirens cut through the air moments later, the EMT's got her on a gurney and were about to leave, "Wait, let me come with you!" I cried.

They looked at each other, "Well, she is bleeding, so I guess she can come along." They let me hop into the back of the van with Rose. Wait, did they say I'm bleeding? Where? We raced to the nearest hospital, when we got there Rose was immediately taken to surgery. I was taken to an emergency room type part to get stitches. Apparently I hit my head when Rose pushed me out of the way. They checked me into a room because I had a possible concussion.

"You're with the car accident Jane Doe, right?" a nurse asked me.

"Rose Hathaway. Her name is Rosemarie Hathaway, " I replied coolly.

"Okay, Rose then, does she have any next of kin I can contact?"

"No, I'm her best friend though. We're like each other's families. I'm all she has left," yeah, I'm lying, but whatever she wouldn't want her mom here. I never really understood it, but I know she harbors some sort of resentment towards her mom. If I could I'd do anything to have mine here.

"Okay, well, her surgery went well, she's in recovery now. She lost a lot of blood, there was internal bleeding, and there was a lot of broken bones. Eventually, she will be able to walk again," she explained.

"Wait, she'll be able to walk again? She's paralyzed right now? That's not possible. This is Rose were talking about!" I was starting to hyperventilate.

"I'm sorry, dear. During surgery there was some nerve damage done while we were trying to stop the internal bleeding. There was nothing that could be done to stop it."

"You broke my best friend?"

"She'll be fine. Don't worry too much," she was trying to calm me down. She took me down to the recovery room to see Rose. As soon as we got there she got paged to some kind of emergency, so it was just us. Rose looked so fragile, so vulnerable. I didn't even think Rose could look like that; it's so not her. She looks almost as pale as me. Oh, Rose.

About an hour later she woke up, "Oh, God. Oh, Rose, thank god you're alive! I thought you were going to die. How do you feel?"

"Ouch… what happened?" she moaned. She doesn't remember the car accident? I told her about the accident. "Oh, yeah. That… I sort of remember that, are you okay?" ugh, she's so hurt why is she worrying about me?

"I'm fine. Don't worry so much!" I took her hand in a soothing motion.

"It's sort of my job, Liss," she smiled. That's not fair. I can't believe I'm just realizing Rose doesn't really have a life of her own. She worries about me, that's about it. That's sad.

I shook my head, "No, it shouldn't be. That's not fair. I'm going to change that, right now."

"What?" she looked so confused.

"Well, first I'm going to heal you, because it'd be stupid not to. Then, I'm going to wipe your mind. It's something Adrian and I found while researching spirit back at St. Vlad's. You won't remember me, or vampires, or being shadow kissed. You'll be normal. You can be happy," I smiled.

"Lissa, are you crazy? You can't do that! It won't work anyway, being shadow kissed means I'm in your head. I'll never forget you! So you should just forget all about that!" her eyes flashed.

"I can change it, so I'm in your head. Rose, I'm doing this for you. It really doesn't matter if you like it or not, I'm doing it. And right now, you can't do anything to stop me," I put my hands on either side of her head. She struggled at first, but then fell limp. It worked, I'm actually in Rose's head. First, I healed her, then, I went through all her memories. It was sad how I was in most of them, and the ones I wasn't were the ones she was training.

Slowly, one by one, they were slipping away. Until there was none. I pulled my hands away, "Maybe I'll see you around." She couldn't hear me though; she was slumped against her pillows. "Bye, Rose," a tear ran down my cheek as I left the room. I walked up to the nurses station, "Hello, the car accident girl, Rose, can you make she has a good place to go? She's a runaway, we met and I said she could stay with me for a while, but now… I don't think I'd be much help to her," I shrugged.

"Of course, dear. We'll have child services here when she wakes up. You said you don't know her family?" I shook my head. She promised Rose would be okay, that's all I can hope for. I grabbed my purse and coat and walked back to the apartment. Instead of going to school in the morning I went straight to the coffee shop to feed. Maybe Adrianna will be here.

"Lissa, what's wrong," she walked up to me before I even had a chance to look for her. She put her hand on my arm, concern in her eyes.

"Rose is gone. I'll explain in a little bit. I need to feed," she was confused but nodded, and let me go. I ate quickly I wanted to talk to Adrianna, well, talk to anyone. It's weird not having some one around me twenty-four seven. I told her what I did and how I'm feeling, and she just listened. "Do you think she'll be okay?"

Her eyes sort of glazed over, "That's weird."

I started to panic, "What's weird?"

"I don't see anything, but there are a lot of different reasons that might be happening. I wouldn't worry too much about it. I'm sure she'll be fine," she looked at her watch. "I'm sorry, but I have to go to work. I'm already late," she hugged me goodbye. In the next week I could sort of feel what was happening to Rose, I didn't want any definite information though. Like I know she's living with some family now, I just don't know where.

The apartment is so empty without all of Rose's stuff just thrown around. I'm sending her stuff back to St. Vlad's without a return address; it's just too hard to have it here. While packing it there was a banging on the door, looking through the peephole I was surprised to see Guardian Belikov. How did he find us?

"Rose, I know you're in there! Open the door!" he called.

I unlocked it and opened it a little, "Actually, she's not." I tried to close the door, but he stopped me.

"Princess, please, can I come in?" I didn't see why not, he's going to do it anyway. He is just a bit bigger than me. I opened the door more and stepped aside.

"Where is Rose?" he asked, he sounded mad at her. Wait until he find out what happened…

"I'm not telling you."

"What? Why?"

"Because, you don't need to know. She's not coming back. That's all you should know. Just go away," oh, God, she loves him. How did I not see it before? Now that I'm in her head, it's so obvious. I'm such a bad friend.

"What do you mean she's not coming back?" he looked so hurt by this.

"You love her." I state, definitely not a question. He nodded, "Then, I guess I should tell you. There was an accident. She pushed me out of the way when a cab almost hit me. It hit her instead, she spent hours in surgery, and the doctor to me the most she would ever be able to do again is walk. I realized that, she shouldn't have to be like a slave to me the rest of her life. So, I wiped her memory. It's something I learned how to do from studying at St. Vlad's. She didn't want me to, because it meant that I had no guardian, but I'm okay with that. I can take care of myself."

"Where is she now?"

"I don't know. Even if you find her, she won't remember you. I'm sorry. I do have a question though. How did you find us?"

"Christian," he said absently. He looked far away by now, thinking.

"What? How would Christian know?"

"He told me to check here because you said you wanted to come here someday," he was looking around the room.

"Is he here?" that's when he looked back at me.

"He's waiting in the hall. He didn't want to come in because he thought you hate him. Is teenage drama really like that? I don't remember anything as stupid as that." I was so excited I don't even care that he basically just insulted me. I opened the door to run out into the hall, but Christian was already there. He looked different, it hasn't been that long, but he looks even more amazing than before. He's definitely taller and his ice blue is are more striking.

"I thought you said you hated me and never wanted to see me again. I didn't actually think you would go to the extreme of running away. Hey, hey are you crying?" I was crying, not only because I was happy to see him, but also because now that I wasn't alone I could mourn the loss of my best friend. She didn't die, but I'll probably never see her again. My only answer could be to nod. He held me tight and smoothed my hair, like he always did when I was upset. I don't even remember why we broke up, this feels so right.

"Sorry to break up the love-fest, but we need to find Rose," Dimitri said.

"You lost Rose?" Christian must have not heard what happened. So I retold the story.

"Like she was paralyzed?" Christian asked uneasily."

"Yeah, but I healed her. She should be able to do everything she could before the accident now," I murmured.

"Like I said, we have to find her. Janine Hathaway's daughter; Strigoi will do anything to get back at her for killing their own. They might try to kill her."

"How are we going to find her? She could be anywhere," Christian asked.

"Do you know how she found me? Whenever I was in trouble she could always find me," I asked Dimitri.

"I'm not exactly sure. I think she just closed her eyes and concentrated on you. Are you saying you're the shadow- kissed one now?"

"Uh, I think so. Like I still feel Rose. I don't know if it's because I miss her or because we're still connected. But, I've got to try. She would for me. She'd do anything for me." I took a deep breath and closed my eyes, I was suddenly thrown into Rose's mind. It's such an odd sensation. She was sitting in a house doing homework; she was actually smiling, which is weird because Rose always hated school. Come on Rose tell me where you are.


	3. Chapter 3

**Because this chapter is so short I think I'll upload another chapter tonight or tomorrow morning. I hope you enjoy =) RxR**

Chapter THREE: Everything's New

Rose POV

"Rose, are you in here sweetie?" Mrs. Michaels called from the hall.

"Yes, Mrs. Michaels. Do you need something?" I asked opening the door. Mr. and Mrs. Michaels are the nice old couple that took me in. I'm grateful that they're doing this for me, but I wish I could remember who I really am and where I'm from. I don't fit in here, I like my school and everything, but I can tell I used to be someone completely different.

"You don't have to call me Mrs. Michaels, dear. You can call me Linda if you would like to. I was just coming up to tell you dinner is ready if you're hungry."

"Thanks, Mrs. … Uh, thanks Linda. I'll be done in a couple minutes." She smiled, nodded and closed the door behind her. Linda is a very good cook; she makes the best Italian food I've ever had… I think.

All I have been thinking about is who I am. I need to know, I need to go home, but what I need most is to know why no one has come to look for me. All I can remember are eyes; I know it's a guy. Just his eyes, his beautiful eyes, I can't imagine him not looking for me. Or what about my mother and father, or my best friend, I couldn't have been all alone. Could I have been?

Closing my books I went downstairs to eat with the Michael's. And I promise I will find out who I am.


	4. Chapter 4

**Hey, so I said I'd post another chapter tonight… Sorry this ones kind of short too… I'll try to make the next one longer! RxR**

Chapter FOUR: Sighting

Lissa's POV

I got it! When she closed all her books, the book cover said East Western High. Now we just have to figure out where that is. "Where is East Western High?" I asked looking for my laptop. It was under a pile of clothes somewhere. If they knew I wouldn't actually have to find it and that would be great.

"Is that where she is?" Dimitri asked. Christian just shrugged. Such help those two are. Where did I put it? Oh, yeah. It's on Rose's side, she borrowed it. I've been avoiding going through her stuff unless it was necessary.

"You two are absolutely no help. I'll look it up. Hold on one second," I said as the computer loaded. After clicking on my search engine I typed in East Western High. There were four hundred results. The closest is in New Jersey. Well, it looks like were going on a road trip. "She might be in New Jersey."

"Okay, you two stay here. I'll go get her," Dimitri stood up.

"Wait a minute! We're coming with you! And besides you can't go without me, you don't know where in New Jersey and you don't even know if that's where she really is! And you're my guardian you can't just leave me!" I almost shouted after him. I need to go with him.

"Dude, they're best friends you're not going to stop Lissa from going. Might as well not fight it," Christian defended me. Ugh, I've missed him so much.

"Fine, but first sign of danger and get out of the way. Christian, you're a fire user right? If there's any trouble make sure you use that to your advantage."

"He's talking like he doesn't even know us!" Christian was trying not to laugh.

"Ha, ha, ha obviously!" I failed at trying not to laugh, and am currently clutching my sides from giggling so hard. Dimitri didn't find it funny though and rolled his eyes. He was obviously in a hurry to leave because he actually tried to start packing for me; I pushed him out of my way. I don't need him seeing some of my personal articles of clothing. I was done shortly and we were on our way.


	5. Chapter 5

**Hey Everyone! I think I'm going to start holding new chapters hostage because no one is reviewing… anyway I said I'd try to make this next chapter longer and look at that! It is! I hope that made you all happy =) if you want another chapter I would hit the little button at the bottom that says review =)**

Chapter FIVE: What is that?

Rose POV

So I'm not that much of a loser, I do have one friend. Lindsey. Well, two if you count her twin sister, Vanessa. Their always together, but they fight all the time. The three of us are kind of like misfits. Lindsey is really shy, Vanessa is a little crazy, and I can't even tell people who I am. No one knows what to think of us. And when I say Vanessa is a little crazy I mean mentally, that's why they fight. Vanessa thinks there are monsters out to get her. With pale, cold skin and red eyes.

This morning was no different, "Ness, face it. It was a nightmare. Just grow up! Monsters aren't real!"

"Linds, I've seen them! It was horrible, he took a little girl and he killed her! He drank her blood!" Vanessa hissed back. Ness and Linds were what they called each other.

"We're almost at school, can we save this conversation for a later date?" I didn't want to be mean, but I didn't want people to hear Vanessa talking about monsters. I have a hard enough time as it is, I don't want people to think I'm truly crazy.

"Fine, but Rose, if they come for you, don't say I didn't warn you!" Vanessa said seriously. Lindsey looked at me and mouthed sorry about Vanessa's craziness. As I sat through Russian my mind wandered back to those eyes. The one thing I could remember, but at the same time couldn't remember. What is it about them? What was I thinking about when I woke in the hospital? Or more likely who?

I know I have a memory of it, I was thinking about someone as soon as I woke up, like I couldn't let myself let go of that person. I was trying to put a face around the eyes when my teacher called on me, apparently it hadn't been the first time she'd said my name. "Rose, are you okay?"

"Aa cnasndo," (yes thanks) she would give extra credit points if we answered in Russian.

She looked concerned, but then nodded then asked her real question, "Bawe haebahne?" (What's your name?) She likes to have pop oral quizzes in class sometimes. Great.

"Moe Haebahne Rose. Kak- Bbl?" (My name's Rose. How are you?)

"Xopownn. Oyehb xopownn Rose!" (Good. Very good Rose!) She smiled. Thank goodness I actually studied last night. She hinted there would be some sort of test today. I don't even know why I wanted to take Russian, like it's such a random language. Back to the face, or the memory, which ever I can get to first. Longer hair, I think, and maybe older than me, I could be completely making this up though. For some reason it just sticks, it just feels right.

Now I'm going to try for the memory, I have doubts I'll get it, but no reason not to try. I went through the day not really thinking about the work, but thinking about the man. Nothing. I wasted a whole day on nothing. I didn't want dinner so I just went to bed after I did my homework. I plummeted into a horrible nightmare. I was stuck in some sort of basement with other four people I don't know, three boys and a girl. One of the boys and the girl faces looked taunt, like they were being starved. I wonder if I look like that too, I certainly felt like it.

"All right," the boy with the taunt face said.

"SHUT UP!" a man said, I hadn't even realized he was there before. Is he supposed to some sort of guard?

"I'm ready to drink," he said stony faced.

"Don't screw with us!" the guard answered.

"I'm not. I'm tired of this. I want to get out of here, and I don't want to die. I'll drink- and I want _her._" He nodded towards me. I have no clue what's going on, and it's my own dream! The girl squeaked, and one of the other boys said a very cruel thing to the kid talking about drinking. The other boy just looked drugged up, he had his head down, just sitting there.

The guards talked about something, I think about someone, then deciding against it. One guard walked behind the boy and snapped his cuffs so he could get up. "Christian, are you out of your mind? Don't let them do this!"

"You guys have to die, but I don't!" the Christian boy snapped. "There's no other way out of this." I really have no clue what's going on the two guards followed close behind Christian. He smiled bitterly, "You and I have never like each other, Rose. If I've got to kill someone, it might as well be you. Besides, I thought you wanted this."

"Not _this_. Please, don't-" I could feel myself talking without telling myself to.

"Get it over with, or get back to you chair," the guard shoved Christian.

"Sorry, Rose. You're going to die anyway. Why not do it for a good cause?" he was still smiling darkly. He put his head down to my neck; "This is probably going to hurt," what is going on? He put his face almost behind my hair and nuzzled my neck, almost like he was kissing it. Then the pain came, it wasn't in neck though, like I expected, this seems like some kind of vampire nightmare to me. The pain was in my wrists, I felt like I was being burned.

Then oddly enough, it felt like I was thrust through to later into the dream. Like I skipped parts of it. It was like hearing Vanessa's voice in my head, "pale, cold skin and red eyes". Now, it was like I was on the outside looking in, I could see myself, fighting the 'monsters'. Just then the boy who had spoken in anger towards Christian came back into view, not even a minute later he was dead.

I heard myself scream his name, Mason. I grabbed a sword and killed the two monsters that had murdered him. That's when I finally woke up, screaming. Linda was sitting on the edge of my bed, "Oh, dear, I've been trying to wake you up. Are you okay?" I wiped the tears that were running down my face and nodded. "I'll let you get some rest then. If you need anything at all I'm right down the hall."

When she left I turned on the light and looked down at my wrists. There was scarring, from burn marks. It wasn't a dream. It was a memory, a horrible memory that I wish I didn't have. The doctors said I as probably a runaway; maybe this is why I was running. I can't believe I never noticed the marks before, and now, it's like I can't stop staring at them. The next few days I tried to bring up more memories with no luck. Damn it.

"Did you get your homecoming dress yet?" Lindsey came up behind me.

"Oh, you scared me! And not yet, I don't know if I'm going to go," I shrugged.

"Why not?" she asked. I just shrugged again, I don't really like going to school functions. I might have used to, but now their just annoying.

"Hey, Rose! Linds," Vanessa walked up to us. I guess they're in another fight. "Did you hear about the new students?" it's weird when Vanessa know something before Lindsey or me, but it was one of those rare times she did.


	6. Chapter 6

**Thank you for following directions and reviewing! =) And look at your prize you get a shiny new chapter! It's kind of short though… sorry about that. I'll probably get another chapter up soon though!**

Chapter SIX: What now?

Lissa POV

After searching five different schools, we found her. She wasn't in New Jersey like we originally thought. Ironically enough, she's in Montana. We enrolled in her school, for Dimitri it was a little harder because he technically is a lot older than a high school student. I was able to use my compulsion to get them to let him in. While we were just observing Christian almost laughed that Rose only hangs out with two people. Twins, actually I think I heard their names are Lindsey and Vanessa.

We figured out Rose's schedule and made it so we had the same classes that way it would be easier to watch her. Well, that is until we figure out a plan to get her memory back. Starting tomorrow we'll have Russian with her, first thing in the morning. Why would she take Russian? She hated Spanish; but she never wanted to take any other language. I was really surprised when I saw that she was in almost all honors classes, I thought I was the smart one and she was the one who just kicked and punched people.

When we walked into Russian that morning everyone looked up, including Rose, when she saw Christian her eyes widened. She looked back down at her work, is it possible she remembers something? There was only three seats left, which was a little perfect because they were all close to her. I took the one right behind her, Dimitri to the side, and Christian next to her, like a square. She moved a little, away from Christian.

What's going on with that? "Hey, I'm Lissa, and this is Dimitri and Christian. What's your name?" I smiled.

She turned a little and glanced back, "Rose," and went back to her work. She didn't even look up at Dimitri; we were hoping seeing him would trigger a memory, she did love him after all. As soon as class was over, she grabbed her books and basically ran out of the room. She looked kind of annoyed that we were in all of her classes. It's kind of nice to see her annoyed, I miss how easily she could get angry or annoyed or happy.


	7. Chapter 7

**Okay so I just realized that I haven't been saying that I don't own Vampire Academy… so yeah. I don't. I do own Lindsey and Vanessa though =) **

**I told you I'd put another chapter up, so I am. RxR**

Chapter SEVEN: Gone

Rose POV

Lindsey, Vanessa, and me walk halfway home together before we have to go separate ways. Walking by myself kind of scares me, it's not the best neighborhood, and I always try to walk a little faster around here. "Hello, Dampir," a sickeningly sweet voice came from behind me. I don't know who that is and I don't know what they're talking about, so just walk faster.

Some one caught me by the arm, I tried to yank free but this guy is strong, "From what I heard you're not one who usually runs from danger." Since it's obvious I'm not getting away I look back at him. He has red eyes and pale skin. Is it possible that Vanessa isn't crazy? That she actually did see some sort of monster? But wait, she said that the she saw one of them kill a little girl and drink her blood. So that makes this guy a vampire, like the ones from my dream.

"I don't know what you're talking about. But you should really let me go, like right now!" I saw myself fighting in the dream, and I'm good. If I can remember what to do maybe I can save myself.

"Well, you see I can't do that. I have a little score to settle and you're the perfect way to do it. So, you're coming with me, little girl," he picked me up and threw me over his shoulder. We took off, or rather he took off, the ride was very jerky and uncomfortable. He ran about four blocks without anyone saying anything, cowards. We had arrived at a warehouse that had been abandoned years ago.

"Who are you?" I asked terrified.

"I, my dear child, am your worst nightmare!" how cliché, "Sorry I can't provide better living conditions. I wasn't expecting to find you so fast. Doesn't really matter anyway we can leave in the morning."

"Leave? Where are we going?" crap, I've been kidnapped and he's taking me away. Not good. Well, it could be worse, I could be dead.

"Don't think I don't know what you're up to! You're not telling the princess where you are! She'll bring guardians and everything will be ruined!" he hissed.

"The princess? I was really hoping you were just a bad person and not crazy," I sighed; maybe this nut job is going to kill me after all.

"You really don't remember do you? Oh well, doesn't matter to me. Just make sure I tell my boss…" he tied me up, tightly. He sat in a chair across the room watching T.V., what the hell? After awhile all I wanted to do was sleep, but if I do, will I ever wake up?


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter EIGHT: Where The Hell is She?

Lissa POV

Pain. Fear. Confusion. All suddenly hit me like tidal waves. But it wasn't my pain, fear, or confusion, oh no Rose! We hadn't followed her home because she seemed hesitant around us, almost scared, and if she saw us, well that would have been bad. I let my thoughts flow into hers, hands tied behind my back, thick rope biting into my skin, no, not my hands, Rose's. A man sitting across the room, but I know better that's not just a man.

Not a man at all really, he's a Strigoi, "Dimitri!" I screamed.

He came running, stake drawn, "What's wrong Princess?"

"Not me, Rose. A Strigoi got her!" I was on the verge of crying. Christian came then, he took me in his arms and told me everything well be okay. "Not yet, but I'll make it. I need a phone, I need Adrian's help," Christian flinched when I said I needed Adrian Ivashkov, but nodded and pulled out his phone. The first time he didn't answer, the second no answer, but finally on the third try his hung over slurred voice answered. "Rose has never wanted anything from you, but she needs you **now**. Can you help or not?"

"Lissa, you know I'd do anything for Rose. What does she need? Oh, and by the way, where the HELL are you two? Everyone's worried, then Belikov and Christian disappear too. Did they find you?"

I cut him off, "Adrian, shut up! Christian and Dimitri are here and we're all fine at the current moment. I did something bad though, I wiped Rose's mind a couple weeks after we got here. And, well, Strigoi have found this a perfect time to get back at her mom. They've captured her, I don't know where they are, but she might. Can you dream walk to her and figure it out?"

"Oh, God. Hold on, " I heard silence on the other end for a couple minutes, "I can't. She's not sleeping, she's tired though, and she's almost there. I just can't get a strong enough hold. Where are you? I'm coming. I want to help; it'll be easier in person then over the phone anyway. I promise I won't tell anyone."

He's right, so I told him where to find us then went on to my next call, "Hello, this is Guardian Hathaway. How can I help you?" Rose's mother is always so formal.

"Hello, Guardian Hathaway, it's Lissa Dragomir. Before you say anything just listen, okay?" I told her all of what happened, the accident, the memory erasing, and the Strigoi. She was silent the whole time, "Are you still there?" it was deathly silent for another minute.

"Yes, I'm here, and I'm coming. You don't know how many Strigoi are there and she's my daughter, I need to be there. You tell me where you are right now!" I've never heard her like this.

"That's why I was calling. And, I'm sorry." I told her where she could find us. She said she'd take some vacation time and be here as soon as she could. A few hours later Adrian was pounding on the door. You could tell he was trying desperately to become as sober as possible.

"Hey, Adrian. It'll be all right, Rose is tough, she may not be able to fight, but she's not going to give up," I don't know if that true, but I have to believe. I have to trust that Rose is still her hard- headed, stubborn, smart- ass self because, I don't know what I'll do if anything happens to her. It will be my fault; if she dies it'll be my all fault.

Adrian could sense the emotional storm raging through me and hugged me, "I know, we'll get her back. We have to. If we don't who am I going to bug the crap out of and call my little Dampir?" he squeezed tight.

"Hello, Adrian. Nice to see you again," Christian said curtly. Adrian let go of me and put his hands up. As if to say 'I don't want to steal your girlfriend'. Christian, who still doesn't have much self-esteem, snaked his arm around me and kissed my check. Adrian chuckled and left the room.

"Christian, not this again! Please!" I sighed, exasperated.

"I'm sorry, Liss, I just can't help it. I'm sorry," he repeated.

"It's okay," I laughed and kissed him.


	9. Chapter 9

**(Sorry for taking so long for updating! I was out of town and I couldn't take my computer with me so that's my excuse take it or leave it… But look! There's a long chapter after this author's note! =])**

Chapter NINE: Dreams

Adrian's POV

Last nights party seemed a far away memory, something was waking me from my drunken slumber. An annoying buzzing noise, my phone, "Hello?" Even I could tell my speech was slurred.

"Rose has never wanted anything from you, but she needs you know **now**. Can you help or not?" Lissa's frantic voice sobered me immediately.

"Lissa, you know I'd do anything for Rose. What does she need? Oh, and by the way where the HELL are you two? Everyone's worried, then Belikov and Christian disappear too. Did they find you?"

She cut me off before I could shoot any more questions, "Adrian, shut up! Christian and Dimitri are here and we're all fine, at the current moment. I did something bad though, I wiped Rose's mind a couple weeks after we got here, she had gotten in an accident. And, well Strigoi have found this the perfect time to get back at her mom. They've captured her, I don't know where they are, but she might. Can you dream walk to her and figure it out?" Lissa was almost crying.

"Oh, God. Hold, on," I put down the phone. I let my eyes glaze over, Rose, Rose, Rose, I thought. I could feel her, but I couldn't quite hold her. Damn, she's not sleeping, but she's so tired, so, so tired. Fighting to stay awake in fear that if she closes her eyes, she'll never open them again. "I can't. She's not sleeping, she's tired though, and I just can't get a strong enough hold. Where are you? I'm coming, I want to help, and this will be easier in person then over the phone anyway. I promise I won't ell anyone," Lissa told me everything.

I grabbed random clothes and shoved them in a duffel bag. I can't believe this, when Lissa and I discovered we could wipe someone's mind… Well, we decided it was just too horrible and swore to each other we would never do it. That had actually been her idea! And now Rose, my little Dampir, is gone. I love Rose, no matter what she, or my great aunt, may think. What if we can't get her memories back, then what? Its amazing Lissa could even do it in the first place; it takes such a great deal of power. Power I didn't even sense in her before.

Since I basically live at the academy, I let my guardians be reassigned to someone who needed him or her more. Which made it much easier to get off school grounds. "Just be careful, Mr. Ivashkov," Alberta said sternly. I smiled and thanked her for her concern even though it wasn't needed. Jumping on the first train I could, I impatiently made my way to Lissa and, eventually, Rose. The whole time I tried to see if she was asleep yet. Of course, she wasn't. I was starting to get pissed off; I swear she's doing this on purpose. She always did like to make me crazy. Just go to sleep, Rose! It could save your life!

Finally making it to Lissa's, I banged on the door, "Hey, Adrian," Lissa opened the door, I hadn't had a drink since last night, I must look horrible. "It'll be all right, Rose is tough. She may not be able to fight, but she's not going to give up," her words maybe false, but right then I needed to hear them.

Lissa maybe the one who caused all of this, but she was still scared shittless for her friend, and she felt guilty, which she should. It's not nice, but I can't lie to myself, I'm so mad at her. "I know; we'll get her back. We have to. If we don't who am I going to bug the crap out of and call my little Dampir?" I hugged her tightly. We're best friends, just because I'm mad doesn't mean I'm going to stop being here for her.

"Hello, Adrian. Nice to see you again," Christian made his presence known. I can't believe after all this time and all the flirting with Rose; he still thinks I want to steal Lissa away from him. I mean, she's beautiful, sure, but my heart belongs to Rose. Which just sucks for me, now doesn't it? I raised my hands in a sign of peace, laughed a little, and left the room.

"Hey, Guardian Belikov," I said formally. I don't like him, he captured Rose's heart, he knows he's too old and it's forbidden. Well, then again, Moroi men didn't have the best track record staying with one Dampir for long, which is terrible. I'll admit I had flings in school, but nothing like that.

"We will be spending an extended amount of time together, you can call me Dimitri if you wish," he mumbled not looking up from a map. That was unexpected; to call a guardian by their first name was considered disrespectful unless you were friends. From all I've heard about Dimitri Belikov, he doesn't have many friends or maybe he doesn't want them. I don't know.

"Okay. Dimitri, then, I thought I should tell you; she hasn't gone to sleep yet. She's not in any real pain though," I added as an afterthought.

"You know?" he looked up confused.

"Do you mean about how she's doing…. Or how you feel for each other?"

"Both, I guess."

"She's drifting, it's sort of an in between state, I cant get into her head, but I can feel her. And for the other one, Rose never like me. There was always someone else. Then, one day shortly after meeting her, I saw you two training, you guardians think fighting is so angry, but I saw the looks. In between the hits and kicks, love. It's always been you. I thought once that if I had met her sooner I'd have a chance, but the truth is it has always been you. She'll never love me, but that's not really on topic anymore, so I'll stop before I say something I'll regret," I was blabbering.

**(Author's Note: that part about training I kind of made up… I forget how Adrian knew or he just sensed it with his aura reading thingy? Anyways my friend has my books that's why I can't check so sorry.)**

"You do really do care for her don't you?" he asked.

"Yes, I don't understand why everyone finds that so hard to believe, but it doesn't matter. Let's just get back to finding and fixing her," I looked away. He nodded and went back to his work, "What are you looking at?"

"A map."

"Well, no shit a map, but what are you looking for on the map?" that was rude of him. And I thought things were going so well…

"This is from the school to where Rose was staying. If we can pinpoint where she disappeared from maybe we can find some sort of lead to where she is now," he explained. Janine Hathaway burst through the door, her eyes were ringed red, she had been crying recently.

Rose had said her mother didn't care about her, obviously Rose was wrong, "Guardian Hathaway, how are you doing?"

"Mr. Ivashkov, I don't have time for you right now. Where is Vasilisa?" she almost growled. I led her into where Lissa and Christian were sitting on a couch talking. "You're just sitting here while we should be out looking for my daughter?" she sounded furious, she's a scary woman, Rose's mother is.

"We don't know where to start we're waiting for her to go to sleep so Adrian can try to ask her, but right now all we can do is wait, I know she's okay for now, not in too much pain," Lissa shrank back into the couch.

"Not in too much pain? Any is too much!" then she turned on me, oh great. "And you! I don't get the whole spirit thing, but this is Rose we're talking about so try harder!"

I didn't want any trouble, "Okay." I sat down on the couch and tried to enter Rose's mind once more, only this time it worked. I looked around, we were at the ski lodge, the first place we ever met, "Rose, where are you?" I yelled.

"Who are you? What's going on?" the beauty that is Rose stepped into the light. She looked so frightened, oh my, what did Lissa do to you?

"My name is Adrian. I'm here to help you. You can trust me, okay?" I pleaded with my eyes.

"You're one of them, aren't you?" she asked. Now that Lissa is the shadow-kissed one I can actually see Rose's aura, it's beautiful, a swirl of rich blues and deep purples.

"One of what?" I question her. Her eyes are probing me, it's kind of creepy, and a couple of months ago I probably would have loved it, but now…

"Vampire, like the one who did this to me," she held out her wrists. I thought some Strigoi might have bitten into a vein or something, but there was only burn marks there.

"How did you get them?" this is turning out unexpectedly.

"I'm not sure. I'm going to sound crazy, but I swear vampires exist, and one named Christian did this to me," she spoke softly. Oh, no, she remembers Spokane, that's probably the one memory everyone wants her to forget.

Well, I can't lie to her, "Yes, I'm one of them. I don't have any firepower though, but Rose we don't have much time. I'm here for a reason; I need to know where you are. I'm with some people and we want to come help you, please trust me that I'm not trying to hurt you."

"I do. I'm in a warehouse, but I won't be for much longer. The guy said we were leaving in the morning. I tried to ask where but he said I would just go and tell some princess. I don't know. I'm sorry I can't help more. Can you do me a favor though?"

"I'd do anything for you, Rose. What is it?"

"Stay with me." Those three simple words hurt. They said she was scared and she didn't want to be alone. She even looks fragile now, almost Moroi, or even worse, human.

"I want to, but I have to tell my friends about this. I promise I'll be right back though," I tried to smile. So did she. Her face faded from my vision and her mother's, that's really not pleasant, replaced it. "She's in a warehouse, but the Strigoi said he's moving her in the morning."

"That's all? You've been gone for a half hour and that's all you got?" Guardian Hathaway's nosed flared.

"What do you want me to say? She was scared and she doesn't know what's going on," I'm starting to get pissed. She pursed her lips, hung her head, and mumbled an apology. I went back out to Dimitri, "Is there a warehouse district someplace between her school and house?"

His eye's flashed to me then back to the map, "Yes, is that were she is? Which one is she in?" He was speaking fast.

"She's in one of them, I'm not sure which one. We don't have much time, the Strigoi said they're leaving in the morning," I spoke equally fast.

"It's four now, they have to leave by six to stay out of the sunlight. There's ten warehouse's we only have two guardians, there's not enough time, damn it!" Rose's mother came in then and her and Dimitri started fighting about it.

"Listen, we're losing time! Just go, do what you can while you can. I'm going back to her. Just, please," I sat on the couch and went back to Rose. This time we were on campus, in the courtyard. "I'm back," she looked up.

"I didn't think you were coming, you were gone for so long. Where are we?"

"This is St. Vladimir's Academy. It's where you were going to school before you ran away, you and Lissa."

"Who is Lissa?"

"She's your best friend. She saved your life once, and after that you were sort of bonded. Which meant that you were basically in her mind, if she was in trouble you could sense it or you could just feel her emotions."

"And, um who are you? To me, I mean." This confused me, I focused on her aura, she's embarrassed. I'm so confused.

"What do you mean, Rose?"

"Were you some guy I knew, a friend, or…" she blushed, Rose actually blushed instead of saying the word boyfriend.

"Oh, since we're going to give you your memory back I might as well not lie, we were just friends. Well most of the time were friends. I like to annoy you; it's really funny when you're pissed. I love you, but… you love someone else."

"Thank you."

"For what?"

"For telling the truth. You could have lied, but you didn't. So, thank you, Adrian," she smiled. It faded though and she screamed and she woke up. Shit. Lissa was screaming too, her back was facing me and a woman was holding her.

"Lissa, it'll be okay," she soothed her.

"How do you know? You can't see her anymore," Lissa sobbed.

"Who are you?" I asked.

She turned around and hold out her hand, "Hello, I'm Adrianna Ivashkov."


	10. Chapter 10

**(I got a review saying to put up a chapter right away so, I am. And if you guys ever have any ideas send it in a review because it'll probably help=)!)**

Chapter TEN: Meetings

Lissa's POV

"Listen, we're losing time! Just go, do what you can while you can. I'm going back to her. Just, please," Adrian shook his head at them and sat on the couch. He went to her in her dreams; I really need to figure out how to do that. Dimitri and Guardian Hathaway decided to look while they could, and Christian decided to go and help as much as he could. He has his firepower, which is probably more effective than any stake could be if he's fast enough. I felt like a creep, but I was watching Adrian, he was smiling.

There was a knock on the door, after looking through the peephole and seeing it was Adrianna, I opened the door. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, come in. Christian, Dimitri, and Rose's mother just went looking for her. How'd you know where we were?"

"Liss, I'm basically physic remember? Rose's mom is here? Wait, is that Adrian, what's he doing here?"

"Yeah, she's one of the best guardian's out there and he's here because with his dream walking ability he can probably find her. Can you see her?"

"Still, no, I don't know why. It doesn't make any sense to me. I'm sorry." Pain. A lot of pain. All over. Rose's pain. It hurt so bad, I was screaming, and then it just stopped, "Lissa, it'll be okay," Adrianna tried to soothe me.

"How do you know? You can't see her anymore!" I was basically frantic.

"Who are you?" Adrian's voice came from the background.

Adrianna stiffened for a second then held out her hand, "Hello, I'm Adrianna Ivashkov." Adrian looked at me, looking for an explanation. I shrugged, I really don't have time for their messed up family issues. "I'll explain everything later. We need to focus on Rose right now," he just nodded his head. I've never known Adrian to be shocked speechless, and I have to admit it's kind of funny.

The door opened, and Christian, Dimitri, and Rose's mom walked in, "We found the warehouse, but they were already gone. Lissa what happened to you?" Guardian Hathaway asked, I could feel everyone's eyes on me.

"I swear those weren't there a moment ago!" Adrianna gasped.

"Who are you?"

"Adrianna Ivashkov, I'm more worried about that though," she pointed at me.

"What are you talking about?" Adrianna grabbed her purse and took a little compact mirror out. There were bruises on my face, although I had not been hit, they ached a little. "Rose," I whispered. Fury filled me, "Damn it!" Fury filled me.

"Lissa calm down," Christian said, not really soothing. His eyes were like ice, but the coldness wasn't towards me, it was towards the Strigoi who did this. Adrianna closed her eyes, she had a confused look about her, it was really weird, but I think she was trying to look Rose again.

"Russia," she mumbled.

"What?" Dimitri asked.

"I can't see much, but I know Russia. Someplace close to you, are you originally from Russia?" Dimitri nodded. "Is it possible they are going to your hometown?"

"I guess it's possible. Why would they go there though? I grew up in a Dampir community, it just doesn't make any sense," he started pacing.

"I don't know the why's, I just know where," Adrianna said forcefully.

"So, you're a spirit user?" Adrian asked, speaking for the first time.

Adrianna blinked, "What was your first clue, Adrian?"

"Stop it you two, we don't have time for that. I'm going to go get a plane ready to go to Russia." Janine took out her phone and made several calls.

"When we get there we can stay with my family, school's in session so there should be enough room for everyone." Dimitri also took out his phone, I think he called his mother; he spoke in Russian, that's really all I got out of that conversation. "Adrianna… all we can do is wait for the plane right now. Can you please explain what's going on now?" Adrian looked so confused; he hates being confused.

"I wasn't wanted. They gave me up. That's it. Let's move on," she turned to me. "I'll help you pack. We'll be staying there for awhile."


	11. Chapter 11

**(Sorry I've been so busy lately! I've been studying for midterms and everything so it's been a little crazy… I'll try to get another chapter up really, really soon though! And if you have any ideas about what should happen next or any critiques I'd be happy to get them in a review=)!)**

Chapter ELEVEN: Pain and Confusion

Rose's POV

"Rose, where are you?" Some guy I don't know yelled.

"Who are you? What's going on?" I walked up to the porch he was standing on.

"My name is Adrian. I'm here to help you. You can trust me, okay?" His eyes were pleading.

"You're one of them, aren't you?" I asked. He's a vampire, I know it, I don't know how, I just do.

"One of what?" he questions back. I stare intently at him. Waiting for any sudden attack.

"Vampire, like the one who did this to me," I held out my wrists.

"How did you get them?" he looked genuinely concerned.

"I'm not sure. I'm going to sound crazy, but I swear vampires exist, and one named Christian did this to me," I whispered. The one memory I could recover, and I wish I never even had it.

"Yes, I'm one of them. I don't have any firepower though, but Rose we don't have much time. I'm here for a reason; I need to know where you are. I'm with some people and we want to come help you, please trust me that I'm not trying to hurt you."

"I do. I'm in a warehouse, but I won't be for much longer. The guy said we were leaving in the morning. I tried to ask where but he said I would just go and tell some princess. I don't know. I'm sorry I can't help more. Can you do me a favor though?"

"I'd do anything for you, Rose. What is it?"

"Stay with me." It sounded weird saying those words, but I don't want to be alone. I'm scared as hell, and this Adrian guy seems to be on my side.

"I want to, but I have to tell my friends about this. I promise I'll be right back though," he tried to smile. So did I. He faded from sight and the dream took a new shape. It looks like a school of sorts, some exclusive private school, "I'm back," I looked up, Adrian pulled me from my thoughts.

"I didn't think you were coming, you were gone for so long. Where are we?"

"This is St. Vladimir's Academy. It's where you were going to school before you ran away, you and Lissa."

"Who is Lissa?"

"She's your best friend. She saved your life once, and after that you were sort of bonded. Which meant that you were basically in her mind, if she was in trouble you could sense it or you could just feel her emotions."

"And, um who are you? To me, I mean." I have to admit Adrian is very cute and I wouldn't be that upset if he was… more than a friend.

"What do you mean, Rose?"

"Were you some guy I knew, a friend, or…" I blushed. I actually blushed instead of saying the word boyfriend. Ugh, that's so embarrassing.

"Oh…" he paused. "Since we're going to give you your memory back I might as well not lie, we were just friends. Well most of the time. I like to annoy you; it's really funny when you're pissed. I love you, but… you love someone else."

"Thank you."

"For what?"

"For telling the truth. You could have lied, but you didn't. So, thank you, Adrian," my Earth was shattered by pain. I couldn't help but let out a scream. I hope Adrian can't feel my emotions too; my eyes flew open, "What the hell?"

"No sleeping!" the vampire fumed at me. He must know about Adrian.

"I wasn't talking to any princess. I'm just so tired…" he slapped me across the face. He was so strong my chair fell over, my head hit the cold concrete, and I struggled to stay conscience. Why me? What did I do to deserve this? What kind of person did I used to be?

"Go to hell!" I yelled at him.

His nostrils flared and he picked me up by my collar, chair and all, "Listen, you, you better get some manners or I'll kill you no matter what the consequences to me!" He dropped the chair to the floor, which I must admit kind of hurt. A lot. "Time to go," he grunted turning to pack a bag for himself really quick.

"I swear your schizophrenic," I mumbled.

He growled and started to untie me, "You run, I will catch you; don't even try. Just make this easy for both of us and do what I say, or I can force you using my compulsion. I would rather save my strength for better reasons if you don't mind." I could run as soon as I was free, but I think he wasn't lying about the catching me thing. And the compulsion sounds pretty BA, I'd rather not die right now so I'll just buy my time until I can talk to Adrian, or that Lissa girl.

After I was completely free he grabbed my forearm and led me to the door of the warehouse. He stood completely still with his eyes closed, "What are you doing?"

He then proceeded to put on a pair of sunglasses, heavy gloves, and pull up his hood, "I can't let the sun get to me now can I?" He grabbed me again, right outside there was a big white van, he opened the back and threw me in, then climbed in the front himself.


	12. Chapter 12

**(told you I'd put a chapter up soon =) uhm… you guys aren't reviewing so I may have to hold chapters hostage? Kbye)**

Chapter TWELVE: Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

Adrianna POV

Something was whispering to me. Whispering to go to Lissa, because if I didn't something horrible was sure to happen. Grabbing my purse and locking my door I hurried to my new… what could I call them, friends? Yes, that's a good word for the two young girls now. After being alone and isolated my whole life it's almost an oddity to have friends. Knocking on the door I waited until Lissa finally opened the door, "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, come in. Christian, Dimitri, and Rose's mother just went looking for her. How'd you know where we were?"

I smiled, "Liss, I'm basically physic remember? Rose's mom is here? Wait, is that Adrian, what's he doing here?" I know I have no real reason to, but I have a pure hatred towards my brother. He was chosen over me. Therefore I must hate him.

"Yeah, she's one of the best guardian's out there and he's here because with his dream walking ability he can probably find her. Can you see her?"

"Still, no, I don't know why. It doesn't make any sense," as hard as I've tried to find Rose using my power I just can't see her. I'll see things that have nothing to do with her at all. Lissa started screaming, me not really knowing what to do tried to soothe her, "Lissa it'll be okay." Even though I don't know why your screaming I added in my head.

"How do you know? You can't see her anymore?" she was on the verge of hysterics. Poor child.

"Who are you?" my brother's voice rang through the small room.

I stiffened for a second. Adrianna, do not let him see weakness! "Hello, I'm Adrianna Ivashkov." Adrian looked towards Lissa hoping or pleading for an explanation, but receiving none. "I'll explain everything later. We need to focus on Rose right now," thankfully he nodded his head.

The door opened, and Christian, Dimitri, and Rose's mother came in, "We found the warehouse, but they were already gone. Lissa what happened to you?" Guardian Hathaway sounded alarmed at the end.

I looked back at Lissa, only now there were blotchy bruises all over her face, I gasped, "I swear those weren't there a moment ago!"

"Who are you?"

"Adrianna Ivashkov, I'm more worried about that though," I pointed towards Lissa. I feel so bad, her lovely face all marked up.

"What are you talking about?" Lissa didn't realize she had a whole bunch of stuff wrong with her right now. I grabbed my purse, looking for the little compact mirror I kept in there. Lissa took a minute to inspect her face, "Rose," she whispered. "Damn it!" she almost screamed. I didn't have to be able to see auras to know that she's furious.

"Lissa calm down," Christian said, I not sure if that was really to help her or to just get her to be quiet. His usually cool blue eyes were like ice, but not in hatred towards Lissa, all bad feelings of his, of all of us really went to the Strigoi who did this. I have to try again, if Rose is getting hit, I have to at least try harder. I closed my eyes and tried to see past right now.

"Russia," I mumbled. It's all I can see for right now. At least it's an improvement from the last time I tried.

"What?" Dimitri asked, stunned.

"I can't see much, but I know Russia. Someplace close to you, are you originally from Russia?" He nodded, still looking baffled. "Is it possible they are going to your hometown?"

"I guess it's possible. Why would they go there though? I grew up in a Dampir community, it just doesn't make any sense," he paced the room.

"I don't know the why's, I just know where," I said, trying to said powerful.

"So you're a Spirit user?" Adrian asked looking at me.

I blinked once, what a moron, "What was your first clue, Adrian?"

"Stop it you two, we don't have time for that. I'm going to go get a plane ready to go to Russia." Guardian Hathaway was quickly on her phone making calls to get us a fast jet. Well, I hope it's fast.

"When we get there we can stay with my family, school's in session so there should be enough room for everyone." He also took out his phone, although when he made his call it was in Russian unlike Rose's mother.

"Adrianna… all we can do is wait for the plane right now. Can you please explain what's going on now?" poor Adrian he looks so confused. Good. Let him suffer.

"I wasn't wanted. They gave me up. You were favored over me. That's it. Let's move on," I could have given him a better explanation, but that would require more of my attention that I didn't have time to give, so instead I turned to Lissa. "I'll help you pack. We'll be staying there for awhile."

She nodded her head; she hurried to find a bag and stuffed whatever she could get into it. I then took the clothes out, folded them and placed them neatly in her bag. "We need to find her. We need to save her." She was almost chanting, more to herself than to me. I put my hand on her arm and nodded my head as the only comfort I could supply. Janine stuck her head in and told us that we need to go right now. "Okay, thank you," Lissa and I grabbed her stuff and walked to the car in silence.

The plane ride felt like it took forever, that or it was just my nerves; "Are we staying at your house Guardian Belikov?" I asked him respectfully.

"Yes, my mother said that would be fine. Watch out for my grandmother though. She may not like you, she doesn't like many people," he answered without taking his eyes off of the window. We were nearing the ground now; he must have been so homesick before. That sort of makes me glad that I don't have a home to long for.

Adrian looked over at me, "You don't really feel that way do you?"

"Like what, Adrian?" I know he can see my aura, but I felt like he was somehow reading my thoughts. It was overly creepy.

"You hate me. I never did anything to you, I didn't even know about you. You're a hypocrite, you know that, right?" he had come to sit next to me so no one else could hear.

"Me? How am I a hypocrite? You said yourself you don't know me, so how are you possibly judging me?" he's ridiculously infuriating.

"I'm infuriating? You have ridiculous THOUGHTS!" he almost hissed.

"You can read my thoughts? You know what, Adrian, stay away from me and stay out of my head!" I hissed back. I got up from my seat to go sit with Lissa and Christian when there was sudden turbulence. I was knocked down and hit my head hard on the edge of Lissa's seat. Adrian was quickly out of his seat and by my side; even with the turbulence he put his hand over my head where I had a rather large cut. "Thank you," I sighed. I felt his magic flow with mine as he healed me; it was an odd but wonderful sensation.

_Interesting, whenever Lissa and me practice I never have that feeling. How odd._

"That was weird," I agreed, as he helped me up and back to a seat.

_You can hear me? I thought only I could hear your thoughts. It must be some sort of twin thing because it's definitely not a spirit thing._  
"What the hell?" this is so weird and I do not like it.

"What's wrong, Adrianna? Are you okay?" Lissa asked; I could sense the fear in her voice. I don't think she could handle another friend being hurt.

"Adrian, here, has decided to invade my thoughts. Apparently we can read each other's thoughts because of some weird twin thing," I answered her as the plane touched the ground. Everyone was thoroughly confused by the whole thing. We were all anxious to get to the Belikov home so we could plan on how to find Rose. Which is probably not going to be easy. Great…

"Adrian and Adrianna, look for Rose in your ways, Dimitri since Mr. Ozera seems to wish to fight so bad teach him as much as you can in the time you have. Lissa you can help me gather some guardians from around here," Rose's mother once again took charge.

I closed my eyes and focused on her, let's see, Dimitri, his home, a different town, Rose, and Strigoi. Well, that's not at all confusing. I grabbed my bag and took out my sketchpad drawing each and every picture in detail. I closed my eyes again the pictures where in different orders this time. Crap, okay this sucks. Ms. Belikov was hovering over me, "Excuse me, do you know what town this is?" I pointed to the town picture.

She studied it for a couple minutes, "It is Omsk. I can tell by the wooden fort," her accent was heavy but understandable. I wrote the city name on the picture and lined them up studying them. What do they mean?

Dimitri walked in then, "What's this?" he asked.

I guess it's kind of creepy when someone draws a picture that detailed from memory, but I have a good reason. "This is what I see. I have absolutely no clue what it means yet, but this is it."

He rubbed his chin, "How about this, the picture of me because I love her, we're here at my home, she's in Omsk, everything's about Rose, and Strigoi because well, he kidnapped her."

I thought about that, "Dimitri, you are smart! I wonder why he brought her all the way here though." I looked over at Adrian and he was deep in Rose's subconscious. Seeing that it's only about three in the afternoon she must be knocked out.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter THIRTEEN: Getting her back

Adrian's POV

I can't believe I have a sister. One I didn't know about. I think I'm going to have to have a little talk with aunt Tatiana now that my parents are gone. I looked over at her and she was drawing something, good she got something on Rose. Now it's my turn, Rose, Rose, Rose. I thought about her and my love for her, just about everything that makes her, her.

Opening my eyes she was there, we were in a place I didn't recognize; she was lying crumpled on the floor, "Rose!" I called to her. She didn't say anything, but she did moan a little, I ran over to her. I wonder if I can heal her through her dreams, I've never tried, but then again I've never had to. My healing isn't the best, but I've got to try, I put my hands over her and let the magic flow.

She bolted upright, gasping. I pulled her into a vice like tight hug, "Oh, Rose, you just scared me. Don't do that again! Ever!" even if you seem to love getting yourself into these situations I added in my head.

"Adrian, you're crushing me," she whispered.

"Why are you whispering?" I asked. She looked around nervously.

"Aren't you here to save me?" she looked back at me.

Okay, I'm confused, "Of course, but were still looking for you, that's why I'm here. We came to Russia, now we just need to know exactly where you are."

"What are you talking about, you're here now? Or is this another one of those dream things?" Oh, she must have thought I was really there with her. How I wish I could be, to hold her, to kiss her.

"Yeah, it's a dream. Sorry, really, I am. What is this place?" I looked around, hoping there would be a sign or something. Of course there wasn't. "Here, let's get you up," I helped her stand up. She was still sort of weak; guess I didn't heal her completely like I had hoped. My little Dampir could barely walk; I placed my arm around her waist supporting her fragile frame. "Let's get out of here. Now, how do we do that?"

I looked around for doors or windows that we could crawl out of, "Why get out? I'll just be here again when I wake up," she sounded like she had given up. Not like the Rose Hathaway I know and love.

"Because I didn't pick this place for the dream which means your Strigoi friend could be here. I'm not leaving you until it's absolutely necessary," I stared her straight in the eyes, showing I was serious. She nodded.

"There, there's loading doors on the west side of the building. He locked them though, when he left. He had a car right outside them. He was terrified of the sun touching him. Weird guy," she mumbled.

This is getting stranger and stranger, first he takes her to Russia then he just leaves her in an abandoned building? What the hell is up with this guy? Rose was right about the doors being locked, but since this is a dream, I should be able to change that. I closed my eyes and concentrated, there was a soft click, and I pushed the doors open. Sunlight. Sweet, sweet sunlight. I'm not even the one who's been kidnapped and getting out of there is a major relief. I looked around looking for clues of where she was, precisely.

"Adrian, if you find out where I am does that mean you're going to leave me?" she sounded scared again.

"I don't want to leave you. Trust me it's the last thing I want to do, but I need to tell the Guardians where you are so they can save you. Don't you want to get out of there for real?" I asked her.

She looked at me, "I do, but I don't want you to leave me." Her eyes were pleading.

I found a street sign, that's all I needed, or I could stay with Rose in a fantasy world. Then again, the Strigoi will probably kill her before I can have any sort of fantasy life with her. "I'm sorry. I've got to go, but now that we now where you are we can find you. So I'll see you soon, in the real world, okay?" she sat down next to the building and nodded her head.

I opened my eyes and Adrianna was the only one in the room, "Where's Belikov or Hathaway. I found her."

Her head snapped up when I said that last part, "Where is she?"

Seeing as I don't speak Russian, I took her pen off the table and wrote the address of the place on my hand, "Here, not sure what town, but Belikov might know."

"Omsk. Let's go find Guardian's Belikov and Hathaway I think their all in the basement. Rose's mom set up a HQ in the time you were gone, the woman is truly something else," Adrianna stood up, leading the way.

"What the hell is an Omsk?" I asked, following closely behind.

"It's a town you moron! What did you think I was talking about, random shit?" ugh he's so annoying.

"Hey, calm down! No need to call me names. I didn't do so well in geography, sorry," we walked down the narrow flight of stairs into the dimly lit basement. It had looked as if someone had pushed two tables up against the wall on one half then the other half was saved for training. There were a couple Guardians I didn't know there, probably all doing favors for Rose's mom, or in it for the glory. "Guardian Hathaway, I found her, well we found her," I added after Adrianna elbowed me.

"Where? Where is Rose?" she asked. Dimitri and Christian stopped training and Lissa stopped doing whatever she was doing. I gave her the address and she started barking out orders. Wait a minute; she was planning on going to get Rose without me; that will not work.

"Wait, Guardian Hathaway. Rose only knows two of us, she's afraid of Christian, but she trusts me. I have to come with you," I pleaded with her.

Christian's head snapped up, "She's afraid of me? Why?"

I cleared my throat, "She remembers Spokane," was my only answer.

"Very well then, Adrian, you can come, but stay out of the way. Don't come in until it's safe then you can get Rose out of there and we'll all go home. Everyone clear on the plan?" Rose's mother asked loudly.

"I'm coming too. She might need to be healed and Adrian's not the best at that, she could be gravely injured. You need me there, please let me come," Lissa was using compulsion to come. I looked over at Adrianna just as she looked over at me; she knew what Lissa was doing too.

"Okay, Princess, but same goes to you. Stay out of the way," she said sternly. Lissa nodded her head, and we all got ready to go, Guardians grabbing stakes and us Moroi just sort of standing around waiting for them. We all filed into a van when everyone was ready; there was seven Dampir's and then Lissa, Christian, my newly found sister, and me.

I tried to go back to Rose while we were driving but she was awake, making it impossible. Damn. I can't tell if that's a good thing or bad, if she's in pain or not, and I don't want to ask Lissa out in the open. If Belikov hears he may just have a spazz attack. I don't like not knowing what's going on, it's uncomfortable.


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter FOURTEEN: Death?

Rose's POV

"Rose!" came a familiar voice, I couldn't place it exactly. I felt so weak; I couldn't do anything, but moan a little. Then a odd sensation passed over me, warm then cold then warm again. I could move again, I bolted upright, gasping. "Oh, Rose, you just scared me. Don't do that again. Ever!" he hugged me tightly.

"Adrian, you're crushing me," I whispered, what was he doing here? Stupid man, did he get caught looking for me?

"Why are you whispering?" he asked.

"Aren't you here to save me?" I asked on the slightest hope that maybe he just found me.

He looked very, very confused, "Of course, but were still looking for you, that's why I'm here. We came to Russia, now we just need to know exactly where you are."

"What are you talking about, you're here now? Or is this another one of those dream things?" I asked disappointedly.

"Yeah, it's a dream. Sorry, really, I am. What is this place?" he looked around, looking for something. "Here, let's get you up," he helped me stand up. I could barely stand on my own two feet; Adrian placed his arm around my waist gently supporting most of my weight, "Let's get out of here. Now, how do we do that?"

He looked around, maybe for doors and windows or something, "Why get out? I'll just be here again when I wake up," I even sounded like I had given up to my own ears.

"Because I didn't pick this place for the dream which means your Strigoi friend could be here. I'm not leaving you until it's absolutely necessary," he said seriously. Somehow that made me feel better.

"There, there's loading doors on the west side of the building. He locked them though, when he left. He had a car right outside them. He was terrified of the sun touching him. Weird guy," I mumbled through my pain. Adrian almost carried me over to the doors, he closed his eyes, and suddenly there was a soft click. Cool. Sunlight, possibly the greatest thing I've ever seen, shined through. "Adrian, if you find out where I am does that mean you're going to leave me?" I must admit I'm terrified of him leaving me.

"I don't want to leave you. Trust me it's the last thing I want to do, but I need to tell the Guardians where you are so they can save you. Don't you want to get out of there for real?" he smiled slightly.

"I do, but I don't want you to leave me," I pleaded with him.

He continued to look around, guess he's not going to stay. "I'm sorry. I've got to go, buy now that we know where you are we can find you. So I'll see you soon, in the real world, okay?" I didn't have anything to do so I just sat by the building. Even though I'll wake up in the building there's no way I'm going in there now when I don't have to, that crazy guy might still be in there. Looking up Adrian was gone, and the dream was fading, but pain was increasing.

I guess having Adrian here healed me somehow; I tried to open my eyes and realized I was back in the building. And to make matters worse, crazy was back. "Glad you're awake, I was beginning to think I hit too hard. I'm sorry about that my dear, but I had to get your Guardian friends to come. Oh, yes. I know they're coming, don't worry about me. I've brought in reinforcements," he must have saw my reaction, crap. What does he mean reinforcements? Then like magic fifteen more creatures'… vampires like him walked in. Oh, that's what he meant.

I have to find someway to tell Adrian or what was that girl's name? Lissa! He said we were bonded, maybe I can find some way to communicate with her. I just have to do it fast, I don't know where they are or how long it will take them to get here but I don't want them to just come into this. Maybe, if I just concentrate on her, Lissa, Lissa, LISSA! I ended up screaming in my head.

Then, I wasn't the only one there; there was a girl in my mind's eye. It was there girl who had tried to introduce herself that day in Italian. The one I had ignored because she was with the Christian guy. "Rose? How did you do this?"

"Listen, I don't really know you, but you have to tell Adrian something for me, okay? It's not just the one guy anymore, he has friends now, there's fifteen more, not including him. I don't know if you guys have enough people for that or what, but like I know they look strong and scary and just be careful, okay?" I spoke as fast as I could, I didn't know how long this connection thing would last.

"Okay," she looked like she was about to cry, "Okay, I'm pretty sure we have enough people here. We'll be there soon, don't worry, Rose."

I nodded my head, holding this connection was making me weaker my the second, "I have to go, if you can, please hurry," I begged. She visibly shuddered, probably imagining the pain and suffering I'm going through.

"We will. I'll make sure of it. Just don't do anything stupid until we get there, okay?" she tried to smile.

Why would I do something stupid? Oh, old me must've done stupid stuff a lot I guess, "Okay." She faded from my vision and I tried to sit up. The monsters were planning their attack strategy; it almost pained me to listen to them. Some of them went outside, surrounding the building; it's nighttime so the freaks weren't that worried. The rest of them circled around me. Great.

It was about a half hour before we heard the screams, "No one move, no one break ranks. The boss is coming soon and if the Guardians get this one back, you'll be the one screaming for mercy," my original captor said. After the screaming died done everything was completely silent. The doors burst open, and a woman barged in, she was short, and sort of Irish or Scottish looking.

"Let my daughter go!" she hissed. Daughter? This woman is my mother? And she's here to save me. So she really does care, sweet.

"Janine Hathaway. How nice to see you. We've been waiting for you. Well, my boss has been waiting for you actually. You killed his brother, you see. And he didn't exactly like that, he should be here soon," original creep said.

"Yes, I'm really not happy about that, Guardian Hathaway," there was a man standing behind my rescuers.

Only my mother turned, "But, you, you're human," she stammered. Why is that so hard to believe? Vampires aren't really all over the place. Are they?

"Yes, but my brother was stronger. Strigoi. And you killed him, so I hired these people to kill you. Revenge is sweet. Goodbye, Janine," Jesus, these people talked a lot. All of the vampires lunged at each other then, it was pretty epic, and the human man crept towards me during the fighting no one noticed but me. "Your name is Rosemarie, is it not?" I didn't answer him. Just staring straight ahead. "Fine, but just know, your Guardians and mother well be dead soon. You can join them, and die, or you can join us, and live forever."

I looked at him, "I don't really know these people. That woman who said she's my mother, I don't recognize her, but I know what you are what your friends are, is evil. So, go to hell," I hissed the last sentence.

"Well, then, I'm so sorry to say that I'm going to have to kill you now," he almost looked sympathetic. That's odd. He tried to throw a punch a me, and I automatically dodged it. It was like a second nature to fight. I was fast, I was strong, I was powerful. It felt good to strike out on him. It just felt right.

Well, that is until he pulled out a knife looking thing, he smirked and lunged toward me. I just managed to tumble out of the way when he was throwing himself at me again. "Rose!" a female's voice called to me, in panic. I knew better than to look, but he did so I got out of the way. I used my full force and punched him, he staggered back, he looked at me and ran away to be protected by one of the monsters. "Rose!" the voice called again, this time in relief.

Jesus, who is trying to get me killed? I looked around for the voice, the girl, Lissa was here. Since the circle of monsters had been broken I ran to her, she hugged me tight, I felt bad but I kind of just patted her back. "Rose we have to get you out of here. Let's go!"

"Oh, no you don't! Don't think we're going to let last Dragomir princess get away alive, do you?" a monster asked. He tried to attack and for some reason I just had to protect her. It was something about how she comes first. Weird.

"Rose, don't!" she was about to grab my arm, but I pushed her back first. I didn't even have to look at her to know where she was standing.

"I have to. Stay out of the way, or get me something to fight with!" I threw a punch at the guy. He managed to dodge it, barely.

"Uhm, here! Catch!" I glanced over my shoulder, and she threw one of those knife looking things at me. I caught it easily, it made me feel like the most powerful person there. He ran at me again, this time instead of hand to hand combat I stabbed him in the stomach, all's he did was flinch a little. "Rose, you have to stab him in the heart!" Oh, I guess that's why.

This time instead of waiting for him to attack, I sprung first. I plunged the knife into his chest, and he let out a scream. Lissa had to cover her ears from the noise. I pulled out the knife and looked around, everyone was fighting, I couldn't tell you who was winning or losing. There was a fiery explosion coming from the Christian kid, I guess he might not be a bad guy if he came to rescue me.

"Rose, help me! Please!" Lissa cried. I turned around and the human man had her by the throat. I could still barely walk and I had just killed someone, well more like something, could this possibly get any worse?

I ran at him, well more like limped fast at him, he smirked at pushed Lissa out of the way. "I saw you kill one of my men, that wasn't very nice," he spat at me.

"Yeah, well, your trying to kill me so I think it's all fair," I spat back. We lunged at each other at the same time, he tried to stab me while I tried to punch him in the face. From an outsiders view it must have looked pretty epic. I dodged the knife, but he ended up elbowing me in the face. It hurt pretty badly.

He came at me over and over again and again, I was getting weaker and weaker by the second. I don't know why but I knew what I had to do, "Christian!" I called out to him. I punched at the human again, Christian set another fire to a monster, and came running.

"Rose?" he was panting slightly.

"Get Lissa, get her out of here. Now!" I hissed at him. He stared at me for a second, then nodded.

"Liss, come on. Time to go," he pulled her on the arm.

"I can't leave Rose!" she tried to pull away from him.

"Lissa, just go. I'll be fine, I promise," I pushed her towards Christian, away from all the danger.

"That was touching, Rose, truly touching," the man said, and went after me again. Does he ever give up? I held on to my knife thing tightly, unfortunately in my weakness, that wasn't very tight. He could obviously tell he was close to winning, why wasn't any of these Guardian people helping me? Don't they see I'm probably about to die? He struck out at me again and made me drop my knife, crap. "I'm sorry, Rose, but I did offer you immortality."

With that he thrust his knife into my abdomen. I gasped at the pain, he just smirked. I fell to the ground clutching at my stomach, "Help, help me, please help me," I pleaded, hoping one of the Guardians would hear my calls and stop fighting to help save my life.


	15. Chapter 15

My Rose. My beautiful Roza is missing. And I can't do a damn thing about it, I feel so helpless. I feel like this is my fault, maybe if I hadn't been so had on her all the time her and Lissa wouldn't have run away. And if they hadn't run away Lissa wouldn't have done this at all. I can't believe I was so stupid. As we boarded the plane my mind was transfixed on her. I stared out the window; we were close, so close. What I wouldn't give to be in Adrian's position with his Spirit power thing. He's seen Rose; he knows just how she's doing, but maybe, that's not the best thing.

"Are we staying at your house Guardian Belikov?" Adrianna asked softly.

"Yes, my mother said that would be fine. Watch out for my grandmother though. She may not like you, she doesn't like many people," my grandmother is a mean, old woman. She is a sort of physic, and for that reason likes to keep away from everyone. I wanted to have a longer conversation with this Adrianna girl, but her and Adrian started fighting, so I decided to tune them out.

I did notice when the plane had sudden turbulence and Adrianna fell to the ground cutting her head. Adrian was up in a flash and healed her, and then they had a weird exchange. "Are you okay?" I asked politely. She was in fact Moroi royalty, and therefore demanded given respect.

Adrian and Adrianna went on to explain some weird twin communication they have. I was utterly confused by it. I drove them to my house quickly. "Adrian and Adrianna, look for Rose in your ways, Dimitri since Mr. Ozera seems to wish to fight so bad teach his as much as you can in the time you have. Lissa you can help me gather some guardians from around here," Janine took charge easily.

I led Christian down to the gym I had set up in the basement. "Okay, I've only trained one other person. To train her, took months, and I know you, you're just as stubborn as her, but we don't have that time. So, listen to me and you should be okay."

"Thanks," he mumbled.

"For what?" I was confused.

"Saying I was like Rose, I consider that a compliment. I wouldn't have in the past, but… now, yeah, definitely a compliment."

"Oh, well, your welcome then. Now let's get to work. I made Rose run, a lot, we don't have time for that so just stretch your legs as much as you can, but don't forget your arms. I'll be right back," I left him to it and jogged back upstairs. My mother was with the Ivashkov twins. "What's this?" I asked picking up a picture of myself. Hand drawn, it was very good, kind of odd though.

"This is what I see. I have absolutely no clue what it means yet, but this is it." Adrianna looked down at her work.

I rubbed my chin, my mind churning, "How about this, the picture of me because I love her, we're here at my home, she's in Omsk, everything's about Rose and Strigoi because well, he kidnapped her," was the most reasonable explanation.

Adrianna's eyes grew three sizes as she thought, "Dimitri, you are smart! I wonder why he brought her all the way here though." She looked over at Adrian, and looked pained that he was actually with her.

"I have to go back downstairs and help train Christian. Do what you can. Please," I begged her. Adrianna nodded. Lissa and Janine had set up a sort of head quarters in a corner and were calling in guardians that my family knows. Christian landed on his ass, a lot, but he wasn't that bad. He got a lot accomplished by the time I told him to take a break.

"Guardian Hathaway, I found her, well we found her," Adrian hurried down the stairs.

"Where? Where is Rose?" I asked everyone had stopped what he or she was doing.

"Uh, I don't speak Russian, but I wrote it down. Here." Adrian showed me his hand. She's in the warehouse district of Omsk. Janine started giving commands.

"Wait, Guardian Hathaway. Rose only knows two of us, she's afraid of Christian, but she trusts me. I have to come with you," Adrian reasoned. I've never heard him more logical.

"She's afraid of me? Why?" Christian asked quickly.

"She remembers Spokane," was all Adrian could say. It was that plain and simple.

"Very well then, Adrian, you can come, but stay out of the way. Don't come in until it's safe then you can get Rose out of there and we'll all go home. Everyone clear on the plan?" Janine spoke with power.

"I'm coming too. She might need to be healed and Adrian's not the best at that, she could be gravely injured. You need me there, please let me come," I felt weird all of the sudden, like Lissa coming was also very logical. Even though I know she's not.

"Okay, Princess, but same goes to you. Stay out of the way," she said sternly. I went to go get my stake, it was given to me at my graduation. My mentor had given it to me, and I had planned to give it to Rose. If she's not alive when we get there, I swear there will be hell to pay. We all filed into the van and on to our destination or to our death.

Lissa gasped from the back seat, "Rose? How did you do this?" what is she talking about? "Okay, okay, I'm pretty sure we have enough people here. We'll be there soon, don't worry, Rose." Is she actually talking to Rose? "We will. I'll make sure of it. Just don't do anything stupid until we get there, okay?" Lissa tried to smile, a little. She gasped again.

"Lissa, honey, what was that?" Christian asked, trying to stay calm.

"Rose, just came to me. I don't know how, but she did, she said to tell you there are fifteen more now. She's worried about us," Lissa explained.

"She would be," I mumbled. I stepped harder on the gas, speeding up; I hope there are no cops around, because I'm not stopping for them. We got there a half hour later and attacked. We found all the Strigoi around the building and killed them. Christian using what he learned today to protect Lissa, I was rather proud.

Then, Janine kicked the door in, "Let my daughter go!" She roared.

"Janine Hathaway. How nice to see you. We've been waiting for you. Well, my boss has been waiting for you actually. You killed his brother, you see. And he didn't exactly like that, he should be here soon," someone said.

"Yes, I really am not happy about that, Guardian Hathaway," a human said.

"But, you, you're human," Janine stammered. I've never heard her stammer, for any reason. But, I guess Rose will have that effect on people. You'll do whatever is necessary to save her as soon as you meet her, without even knowing why, but that's just her. She's irresistible.

"Yes, but my brother was stronger. Strigoi. And you killed him, so I hired these people to kill you. Revenge is sweet. Goodbye, Janine," she actually did him a favor killing him. Everyone had their jobs, they knew the plan, and at the same time we leapt at the Strigoi. I focused on fighting and nothing else; this is for Rose I have to be perfect. I have to be the God she thinks I am. That everyone thinks I am.

I don't even know how many I killed, but I stopped as soon as I heard a faint sigh. I saw Rose crumple to the ground. "NO!" I roared. I ran to her. "I'm here. Don't worry, I'm here, Rose can you hear me?" I leaned over her, my hair falling in my face. "No! Don't touch me!" she whispered.

"Rose, come on, we have to go" I tried to pick her.

"No! Where's Adrian. He said he was coming for me," she mumbled. That kind of hurt, actually it hurt a lot.

"I'll get him," I motioned over a Guardian. "Sneak Adrian in. Be discreet. Make sure he stays safe the whole time. Bring him straight here. Go, now, fast," he ran off quietly. Two minutes later, Adrian and the Guardian were running towards us. "Adrian, I can't get her up. She wants you. We need to get her out of here," I spoke quickly and quietly.

He nodded, "Rose, Rose, open your eyes. I'm here. It'll be okay; it'll all be okay. Let Dimitri take care of you. Trust me that you can trust him. He's a good guy, okay, Rose?" she shakily said yes, and allowed me to pick her up.

"Where do you think you're going?" the human said from behind me.

I put Rose down, "Hold on, this won't take long." She was crying; my Roza was crying, not acceptable. "Adrian, watch her, make sure she's okay."

"So conceited. Are you sure you'll be able to beat me? I beat her, and you taught her everything you know," he hissed.

I didn't say anything. I'm not going to indulge him, I got my stake ready, and when this fight is over he will be dead. I'm not worried in the slightest. He's just an insignificant human. He attacked first, striking hard and fast. I dodged it easily, staying light on my toes. After a few more attempted hits I realized he favors his left side, I can definitely use that to my advantage.

"I'd like to say I'm sorry. But you might have just killed the woman I love. So go to hell," I hit the right side of his chest, while he was distracted I managed to stab him right where he had stabbed Rose. Revenge. I'd like to say that I kept in control like I always do, but fighting him, I had to loose it, for her. I looked around again, most of the fighting was done, and only Janine was still fighting one. She could have been done with him but I think she wanted him to suffer. "Come on Rose, let's get you to Lissa, Adrian, help me get her up. Be careful, she's bleeding pretty bad," she was barely holding on. "Janine, let's go!"

She looked up, while stabbing the Strigoi in the heart, "What's wrong?" when she saw Rose she came running. She didn't look pleased that Adrian was here, but she'd soon forget.

"We need to get her to Lissa. Now!" When we got outside Lissa came running, and immediately put her hands on her. I watched in amazement as her wounds healed, and her breathing became more regular. "Why isn't she waking up?" I asked nervously.

"I don't know. We should get her to a doctor, soon," Lissa whispered, smoothing Rose's hair back.

"Come on, I know a hospital very close. It's a Dampir one so we shouldn't have to answer any questions," I picked Rose up again and gently placed in the van. I sped off, I only remembered general directions to the ER, but it'll have to do. Adrian and Adrianna were in the very back fighting about why she wasn't waking up. "Shut up back there! I need to concentrate!" why are they such children around each other. Well, Adrian is always childish, but together they're worse.

"I'm sorry Dimitri, it won't happen again," Adrianna spoke softly.

"I'm sorry, too. We'll be quiet," Adrian added. I pulled up into the hospital's emergency parking lot. I got her out of the van and through the front door when two orderlies quickly came to help. It was hard to let her go again, but they wanted to run tests on her. Figure out why she wasn't awake yet.

We all sat in that waiting for seven hours, either pacing, crying, or sleeping. I paced quietly, not saying a word to anyone. Lissa cried. Janine sat in silence, looking almost catatonic. The doctor came out, looking worn-out and tired, "Are you with Rose Hathaway?" no one else answered. I looked around Lissa had fallen asleep and Janine was still in that state.

"Yes, we are. What's going on?" I asked.

"She's alive, while the Spirit power did heal her external injuries, she still had some internal bleeding. The surgery was very successful; there should be no permanent damage. She's resting in recovery right now, when she wakes up you can go see her in small groups," I shook his head and thanked him. "If you'll excuse me I have other patients I have to check on. If you need anything just ask a nurse," he said, backing away.

I sat down next to Janine, "You, okay? Janine?"

"She's going to be okay," she smiled. I had rarely seen Janine smile, at this moment she was crying, but smiling.

"Yes, she will be fine. Don't worry anymore. Now all we have to do is get her memory back. Are you going to be okay now?" I murmured neither of us wanted to wake Lissa or the others.

"I'll be fine, as long as Rose is okay, I'll be okay. Could you wake me up when we're allowed to go see her? I need some rest," Janine asked closing her eyes.

"Of course. Don't worry, Janine, just get some rest," I don't think she heard my answer she was already fast asleep. Would it be selfish of me to go in to see Rose while everyone else is sleeping? I need to see her; I need to make sure my Roza is okay. I know I shouldn't do that to Janine. I know that Janine and Lissa should be the first ones in, Lissa needs to get Rose's memory back and Janine is Rose's mom. In reality all Spirit users should go in before me, but I couldn't handle it if Adrian went to see Rose before me.

"You don't look so good," Lissa whispered lifting her head from Christian's shoulder, he shifted in his sleep.

"Internal conflicts. How are you doing?" I asked.

"Hah, having déjà vu actually. I really hate hospitals, as soon as she's able too, I want to go home, I just really hate hospitals," a single tear rolled down her face.

"The doctor came out, and said that people should be able to go in to see her shortly, you'll go in first, give her back her memory, and we'll get out of here," I assured her.

"Do you want to talk about your internal conflicts, as you put it?" she half smiled.

"Oh, no, it's not important. Don't burden yourself with my issues," I smiled back.

"Dimitri, I'm pretty sure we're friends, even if you are my Guardian and Rose's… uhm, boyfriend. So talking, about anything, wouldn't burden me, and it might even help you. If you haven't noticed, me and Rose are kind of messed up, don't let yourself become like us," she said seriously.

"It's really not important, I just don't want Adrian to go in to see her before I do. Which is selfish I know, because all of you Spirit users should go in first, to give her back her memory. But, it's just frustrating to know that he can always be there for her, and I can't. She doesn't even know me anymore," I answered.

"You are so dumb! Even though he can find her in her dreams, it's you that she dreams of. As soon as she remembers who she is, she'll remember who you are, and who you are to her. Adrian is a flirt; he loves every girl that walks by. Rose is just an obsession to him; he'll get over her. Trust me. You're the one she loves, the one she'll always love. You don't have to worry about that. The two of you are soul-mates, you're meant to be together, so you will be," she wasn't joking she really believed that.

"Thank you, Lissa. I needed to her that. Can you watch for the doctor and wake Janine if he comes out? I'm going to go for a walk," she nodded, and I headed out the door. Lissa's right, I know this, but still, when we rescuing her she wanted Adrian. Not me. I just need to calm down. Before I seriously hurt Adrian Ivashkov.


	16. Chapter 16

**Chapter SIXTEEN: Fixing Everything**

**Lissa's POV**

Waiting for Rose seemed to take forever. Crying was my first reaction, I couldn't stop, it was horrible. It just reminded me so much of the last time we were here. I ended up falling asleep on Christian's shoulder, I felt safe and comfortable there, like it was the most natural thing in the world.

Voices woke me up, Dimitri was the only one still awake, but something looked wrong, "You don't look so good." I didn't want to wake Christian up so I whispered and lifted my head from his shoulder slowly. He only shifted slightly.

"Internal conflicts. How are you doing?" I wish he wouldn't worry about me so much about me. To be honest I worry about him.

I laughed a little, "Hah, having déjà vu actually. I really hate hospitals, as soon as she's able too, I want to go home, I just really hate hospitals." I hated myself when I started crying.

"The doctor came out, and said that people should be able to go in to see her shortly, you'll go in first, give her back her memory, and we'll get out of here," he promised.

"Do you want to talk about your internal conflicts, as you put it?" I tried to smile.

"Oh, no, it's not important. Don't burden yourself with my issues," he smiled back at me.

"Dimitri, I'm pretty sure we're friends, even if you are my Guardian and Rose's… uhm, boyfriend. So talking about anything, wouldn't burden me, and it might even help you. If you haven't noticed, Rose and I are kind of messed up, don't let yourself be like us," I said seriously.

"It's really not important, I just don't want Adrian to go in to see her before I do. Which is selfish I know, because all of you Spirit users should go in first, to give her back her memory. But, it's just frustrating to know that he can always be there for her, and I can't. She doesn't even know me anymore," he explained.

"You are so dumb! Even though he can find her in her dreams, it's you that she dreams of. As soon as she remembers who she is she'll remember who you are, and who you are to her. Adrian is a flirt; he loves every girl that walks by. Rose is just an obsession to him; he'll get over her. Trust me. You're the one she loves, the one she'll always love. You don't have to worry about that. The two of you are soul- mates, you're meant to be together, so you will be," I knew in my heart that everything would work out between them, it had to.

"Thank you, Lissa. I needed to hear that. Can you watch for the doctor and wake Janine if he comes out? I'm going to go for a walk," he was halfway out the door before I could answer. Why does Rose have to put us through all of this, I love her and all but she's wearing me out.

"Adrian, Adrian, wake up," I gently slapped his knee. He slowly opened his eyes and stretched.

"Do we know anything yet?" he asked.

"She's alive. She should be fine. None of that matters if she's not our Rose, though, do you have any ideas on how to get her memory back?" I couldn't look him in the eyes. I was embarrassed.

"I… I actually have no clue, as strange as it may seem I don't have an answer for this one. Maybe I should go look if I can find anything at the Royal Court here, there might be some books in English. It's worth a try, right?" he sort of rambled.

"Don't you want to be here if Rose wakes up?" I asked in return.

"I think it's more important that we know how to fix her rather than me just being able to see her. Even though I love seeing her. This will help her more. You have my cell phone number so if she does wake up you can call me," he stood up and started walking towards the door.

"Adrian, wait, take a guardian with you. Be safe," I stopped him.

"I'm going to the Royal Court, how much trouble could I get in?" he asked.

"With our luck I'm surprised we've made it this far. It's amazing that we haven't all been killed. So please, just this once, listen to me, and take a Guardian," I pleaded with him.

"Fine, and I'm sorry that you actually think like that. That everyone's going to die and such. But, it'll get better, with Rose back home everything will settle down and everyone will be fine. You'll see," he woke up a Guardian and they left quickly. I hope he's right; actually I need him to be right. About an hour later the doctor came back out, I jumped up, "Well?"

He smiled, "She's awake, she's asking for you."

"For me? She doesn't even know who I am. Hold on, one second please; I have to get Guardian Hathaway. Janine, wake up, Rose is up," her eyes fluttered open and she yawned. "Come on, we can go see her now. Dimitri is out for a bit and Adrian went to the Royal Court," she nodded and stood.

"Let's go," she smiled.

"Christian, if anyone comes back tell them we went to go see Rose. Okay?" I asked. He never completely opened his eyes, but he nodded so I'll just assume that he'll remember. The doctor led Janine and me to a small, comfortable-looking, yellow room. Rose was sitting up, she looked a little pale, but still she looked pretty good. "Hey. Rose, how are you feeling?" I sat in the chair next to her bed.

"I want to know everything. How I got here. Who I am. I deserve to know, don't you think? I don't remember, and it kills me. So, if you could tell me that'd be great," she actually sounded kind of mad.

"I… I'm so sorry Rose. This is all my fault, I didn't think of the consequences when I did this. I was trying to give you a better life. That way, neither of us would be depressed or crazy or anything. I'm sorry," I blabbered.

"I'm confused. What did you do to me and why?" she asked trying to make sense out of my chaos.

I sighed, "Okay, so I guess I should just start at the beginning then. When we were younger we were in a car accident with my parents and older brother. While my family didn't survive, I saved your life, after that we were, as you know, bonded, you were what our kind calls shadow kissed. Then, the whole thing with Mason happened, Adrian said you remembered that, so I don't have to go into that. We were both messed up after that, so we ran away. You got depressed; so I thought doing this would help you, make you happier. I'm so sorry, Rose," I told her.

"Who was the man who saved me tonight? Well, I'm guessing it's tonight, I don't really care though," she asked after a minute.

"Man? Uhm, if it wasn't Adrian, then Dimitri. Why?" her train of thought is so confusing, I'm giving up trying to follow it.

"Dimitri. I know him. When I woke up in the hospital the first time I was thinking about him, his eyes. I feel bad now that I asked him to get Adrian instead. I should have recognized him immediately, I feel so stupid," she mumbled the end.

"You remembered something right away? How is that possible?" I know for a fact that I took all her memories. How is it that she remembered anything at all?

"Some memories are just too strong to let go of. Do you know how to give the rest of mine back?" she looked sharply in my eyes.

"We're figuring it out. Adrian's at the Royal Court's libraries right now finding out what ever he can. We're going to fix this, Rose, I promise," I put my hand over hers. "Can you forgive me?"

"You did what you did because you thought I'd be happier. That's easily the best thing anyone could have ever done for me. Yeah, it didn't work out that great, but you're making it better. So, how could I not forgive you? That would be wrong of me," Rose was actually being logical.

"Rose?" Janine seemed uncomfortable.

"Yes?" Rose answered quietly.

"Are you okay?" Janine asked.

"A little drugged up at the moment. But otherwise good," she smiled slightly.

"I'm glad, I should be going then. I have duties to get back to. I'm sorry, I'll contact you as soon as I can," Janine hurried out of the room.

"For some reason that hurts … a lot. Why?" Rose looked like she was about to cry.

"You have Mommy issues," I said simply.

"That sucks. Oh, hey," Rose looked past my shoulder. Christian, Adrian, and Dimitri were in the doorway. Dimitri was scowling at Adrian. "Dimitri, I want to say I'm sorry," Rose looked eager to see him.

"Don't apologize, you have nothing to be sorry for. I understand," he smiled at her; I can't believe I didn't recognize anything between these two before.

"Adrian, did you find anything?" I asked him.

"I think I might have. I have no idea if it will actually work, but it's worth a try," Adrian explained.

"What did you find?" Rose asked.

"It's sort of like a ritual thing. That sounds creepy, I know, but it the only thing I could find," Adrian continued on to explain what he found.

"I'll do it," Rose was willing right away, no fear.

I was scared, but this is something I had to do, no matter what, "Same, I'll do it. When?"

"Full moon, so next week. I'm sorry we can't do this right away, Rose," Adrian answered.

"It's okay. As long as I'm getting my memory back, I don't even care how soon. Just knowing it's coming, and I'll be me again," Rose's eyes seemed to sparkle with excitement.

The doctor walked in then, "Hello, everyone! I'm Dr. Belvashi, how are you feeling Rose?" he seemed really chipper for a doctor.

"Okay, I have a little bit of vertigo, but other than okay," Rose's voice seemed to be getting stronger from when I first came in.

"That's probably just some of the after affects of the anesthesia. It should fade soon. I want to keep you overnight, just for observations, if everything goes well, then you can be discharged tomorrow. Sound good?" he asked.

"That sounds better than you can even imagine," Rose smiled. Dimitri grabbed one of Rose's hands and smiled at her, and she smiled back.

"I'm going to go back to the library, see if I can anything more on the ritual," Adrian said, he wasn't looking at anyone, he was looking at their hands.

"Adrian, I'll come with you. I'll help you look," I couldn't let him go by himself; he might do something stupid because of his so-called love for Rose. He nodded, I grabbed my coat and we left. "Are you okay?" I asked when we were almost there.

"You know, I love her. Really and truly love her. It's just hard to see them together again," he mumbled.

"I know, and I'm sorry that you have to go through this, but you have to move on, we both know that. The Rose that remembers everything loves him, they belong together. And you'll find someone, Adrian, you deserve someone, you just got to keep looking, okay?" I tried to convince him.

"I don't know. You got lucky, Christian and you found each other early, but maybe I already missed my chance," Adrian got out of the car and started to the enormous library.

"I don't believe that. Maybe you just haven't met her yet," I followed him.

"Maybe. I hope you're right, Lissa, and thanks for talking to me."

"It's no problem, if you ever want to talk, I'm here for you, anytime," I smiled.

We walked quietly into the library and over to the section where Adrian had found the ritual books. "Alright, here's the book I had originally found, we can start there. Then, look elsewhere; hopefully this won't take too long."

After three hours we hadn't found out much more than what Adrian had already knew. "Well, it wasn't a complete bust. We got to talk," I smiled. He nodded as we got in the car. "You'll find her. I know you will," I whispered. After everything everyone's going through we all deserve to be happy.

"I'm not believing it until Adrianna has a vision about it, or it actually happens. I will get out of Dimitri's way though, because you're right, I know their in love. I've known from the beginning, I just couldn't accept it, but I have to now."

We drove the rest of the way in silence; it wasn't awkward exactly, just really quiet. "I'm going to talk to Dimitri, tell him I'm over Rose. Well, getting over Rose."

"That's good. I'm glad, Adrian," we were walking into the hospital now. We went straight to Rose's room, assuming everyone would still be there. "We didn't find much more, nothing useable. How are things here?" I asked.

"We're good. Christian, Adrianna, and everyone else went downstairs to the cafeteria to get something to eat. They should be back soon actually," Dimitri answered.

"Dimitri, I was wondering if we could talk? It won't take long, I promise," Adrian asked. Dimitri just shrugged his shoulders and said sure. They left Rose and I to talk in the hallway.

"What's going on?" Rose asked.

"Adrian is finally moving on, he just wants Dimitri to know. He doesn't want to fight with him anymore, or have this rivalry. It's gone on long enough. He's realized that you and Dimitri are great together and he doesn't want to get in the way anymore. He's… growing up," I laugh.

"When I get my memory back do you think everything will go back to normal?" Rose got serious.

"I hope so. I miss you. I miss our friendship."

"As strange as this sounds, even though I don't remember it, I miss it too. I don't know; there's just something there in the back of my mind." The guys walked back in then, Christian too, he must have been coming from the cafeteria. He sat next to me and put his arm around my shoulder.

"Hey, Rose," he smiled at her.

Rose glanced down at her wrists, "Hi, Christian." She sounded distant, like she didn't remember everything about Spokane, only that Christian burned her and Mason died.

Christian knew the same, "Rose, you know I didn't want to hurt you right? I tried so hard to keep the heat off you, but the plastic, it melted onto your skin. We didn't have any other choice, we were trapped in that basement, and you saw a way out. You knew that would happen, but you wanted to do it anyway, because you're brave, and so damn stubborn. Rose, we would all be dead if it wasn't for you, Mason wasn't your fault, he was stupid, if he did what he was supposed to then he would still be here today. And I'm sorry that I hurt you, and I'm sorry you have those scars, but you don't have to be afraid of me. Please, if anything I should fear you," Christian had got up and went over to Rose.

"Really? Then, why do I feel responsible for everything that happened that day? I don't even remember everything and I know it's my fault... But, I do believe you about the scars, and I'm sorry I acted like that before I knew the story," Rose answered.

"You have nothing to be guilty about or to be sorry for. Anyway you should get some rest if you want to get out of here in the morning," the doctor had set up cots for us in Rose's room so we could spend the night. We all fell asleep quickly that night and slept-in in the morning.

Rose was already awake and talking to the doctor when I woke up, "I feel great, my legs are moving pretty well, I think I'm okay to go. What do you think?"

"Well, Rose, I think you've been very brave through all of this, and you say you feel okay so I'm going to release you. If you need to go back to a doctor for anything like lightheadedness, make sure you get there as soon as you possibly can, other than that you should probably hold off on the training. I'm going to go draw up your papers and a nurse will bring them in. I hope you feel better soon, Rose," the doctor explained.

"Thank you so much," she smiled.

"We're going home," I whispered. I haven't been back at the Academy since Rose and I left. Honestly, I'm a little scared of what people will say, but with Rose back I think we'll get through it.


	17. Chapter 17

**Chapter SEVENTEEN: Everything falling into Place**

**Rose's POV**

I can't say that I'm comfortable with Christian, or anyone around here really, but I need to try. This was my life. This is what I wanted to go back to all along. No fear. It's going to be difficult to get used to, but I know I can, I mean, it was my life once upon a time. And as odd as it may sound, I actually feel sort of safe with Dimitri, I don't know him at all, but he makes me feel protected. Like nothing will ever get to me, or he'll die trying to stop them. Through the night I slept like I hadn't slept in weeks, I woke up earlier then everyone and waited for the doctor to come in. To be honest to myself and to be honest to the doctor were two completely different things. I'm still in a lot of pain, but I want to go home, so I'm not about to tell the doctor that. I need to get out of this place, and I'm sure I can rest there.

I was relieved when the doctor came in smiling, "Good morning, Rose!" the doctor whispered since everyone else was still sleeping.

"Good morning, how are you?" I asked politely.

"I'm good, but shouldn't I be the one asking you that? How are you feeling, Rose?" with a slight chuckle.

"I feel great, my legs are moving pretty well, and I think I'm okay to go. What do you think?" since my last accident almost left me paralyzed they were worried about me walking.

"Well, Rose, I think you've been very brave through all of this, and you say you feel okay so I'm going to release you. If you need to go back to a doctor for anything like pain in your back or legs make sure you get there as soon as you possibly can, other than that you should probably hold off on the training. I'm going to go draw up your papers and a nurse will bring them in. I hope you feel better soon, Rose," the doctor left with a smile.

"Thank you so much," nobody can even begin to fathom how grateful I am.

"We're going home," Lissa, whispered.

"I know," I smiled.

"Do you remember any of it?" Liss asked.

"No, just the images Adrian showed me in a dream. I'm still excited though, the sooner I get out of here, the sooner it'll be a full moon, we can do the ritual, and I can have my memory back," I can't wait for my life back.

"Hello, you're Rose Hathaway, right?" a young girl in scrubs asked standing in the doorway of the room.

"Yes?" I asked.

"If you'll just read over these and sign them, you're all set to go. On here it has what was done for you and just some restrictions for the next two weeks, standard stuff, there's a copy for you and a copy for our files so make sure you sign both," she smiled.

"Okay, I will," I answered and she left. Lissa told me a little about the school and about my past while we waited for everyone to wake up. I was amazed at what she said I had done; I never had thought I could do anything like that.

"Rose, you were so amazing. Everyone knew you were going to be the best Guardian in the world. You were better than all the guys, I'm pretty sure they were jealous of you. You weren't scared of anything, always wanted to rush into the face of danger. But, when Spokane happened… everything changed, we changed. You worked ten times harder and barely talked to anyone. It was almost as bad as loosing you, because you were there, but you weren't really with us," she explained.

We boarded the plane two hours after the doctor cleared me to go home. Lissa healed, but I was still having trouble with my legs, so the doctor thought it was best to put me on crutches. I don't like them, they make me feel weak and vulnerable. Dimitri sat next to me on the flight because Lissa was preoccupied with Christian.

"You feeling okay?" Dimitri asked.

"Well, I can barely walk, my mom left me, I don't think it's the first time she'd done that either, and my best friend wants to spend more time with her boyfriend than with me," I'll admit it, I was throwing myself a pity party.

"You're legs will be fine, nobody's mother is perfect, parents usually screw up more then the children, Lissa and Christian just got back together, so they're going to spend a lot of time together right now, and maybe she's spending time with him so I can spend time with you," he comforted me. Then, he put his arm around me, it was comfortable and right, so much so that I snuggled into his side and fell asleep. "Rose, Roza, wake up," Dimitri said softly.

"Are we there?" I asked groggily.

"Almost, but we should talk before we land," I nodded at him to continue, "I don't know if you remember this or not, but I'm sort of your teacher, your mentor. For that reason, no one knows about our relationship, you're eighteen now, so no one can stop us anymore. They can judge us, but that's not really new for either of us. We should just let it all out and tell people. And the Guardian thing, Lissa's going to the Royal Court, Strigoi would be stupid to attack there. Roza, what I'm really trying to say is Rosemarie Hathaway you make my world stop spinning, you steal my breath away every time I see you. So, Rose, my Roza, will you marry me?" Dimitri pulled a gorgeous diamond ring out of his pocket.

"To me, I feel like I just met you, but you make me feel so loved and safe. So, yes, I'll marry you!" I smiled widely. Dimitri placed the ring on the proper finger then kissed me. The plane landed soon after that.

"Are you nervous?" Lissa asked from across the aisle. She had been sleeping, so she didn't know yet of Dimitri and my engagement.

"Kind of. Are you?" I wasn't really, I mean you can't have anxiety over something you can't remember.

"A little. We'll be okay though, it's not like Kirova can do anything to us besides give us, like, detention," she laughed.

"Who's Kirova?" I asked.

"Headmistress Kirova, she's like the principal, but she's also sort of a major pain in everyone's ass bitch," Christian explained.

"Maybe she won't go so hard on you because you can't remember anything," Adrian suggested.

"You are so dumb," Adrianna said to Adrian, they continued to have a mental fight. We were finally allowed us off the plane, I'm embarrassed I couldn't use my crutches on the plane. Dimitri had to carry me, which I didn't really mind.

There was an older-looking woman waiting for us on the tarmac, "Rose, what happened to you?"

"Just a little spinal injury. Do I know you?" I asked.

"Rose, meet Headmistress Kirova," Lissa tried not to giggle.

"What's going on?" Kirova demanded.

"Rose is having a little memory problem, she'll be okay though," Dimitri said.

"Amnesia? Is it related to the spinal injury?" Kirova asked.

"No, I lost my memory when the car hit me. Doctors said trauma like that is hard to overcome," I knew my answer confused Lissa.

"Oh, Rose, I'm so sorry. We'll have Dr. Olendzki take a look at you when we get to the school. Vasilisa and Christian, you two will go to classes, when you're finished for the day you can come see me. Adrian and Mr. Ivashkov's guest can come with me now. Dimitri, Alberta wants to see you," Kirova took charge easily.

There was an SUV waiting for us, we all piled in, and not to long after that we were pulling up to St. Vlad's. It was an amazing, castle-looking structure. "Okay, everyone knows where their going," she looked at me, "Well, Vasilisa take Rose to the infirmary then go to class," Kirova, Adrian, and Adrianna walked away.

"I'll see you in class, Liss," Christian pecked Lissa on the check and walked toward the main building.

"This meeting shouldn't take long, when I'm done with Alberta I'll come by the infirmary to check on you. I love you, Roza," Dimitri kissed me than sprinted towards the woods.

"Amnesia?" Lissa asked.

"You won't get in trouble if they just think I just hit my head. The doctor will check me over, know I don't remember anything, and just tell me I'll get my memory back. Slowly, but surely. We'll be free after that to do our ritual," I explained.

"You're sort of brilliant. Well, here's the infirmary. Are you okay or do you want me to go in with you?" Lissa asked.

"I'll be fine, go to class," I smiled and watched her walk off. I took off my engagement ring and slipped it into my pocket.

"Can I help you?" the doctor asked not looking up from the stack of papers in front of her.

"Headmistress wanted me to come see you, to make sure I'm okay after the flight," I said quietly.

She glance up, "Rose? You're back! Oh, my! What happened? Is Lissa okay?" she asked quickly.

"Yeah, I'm back. Well, first, I got hit by a car protecting Lissa, then I was kidnapped by Strigoi and the stabbed me. Lissa's completely fine," I explained. Dr. Olendzki looked horrified by my story. "Oh, and from the car accident I hit my head, so I don't remember anything before that," I added.

"Oh my God, Rose, I'm so sorry you've been put through that," she looked like she wanted to cry.

"It's okay, I'll be okay. The doctors said no permanent damage was done to my spine and I'll get my memory back. I just have to work at it. So, can you give me a not saying I was here and you checked me out so Kirova is happy?" I asked.

"Sure, sit down and I'll do a really quick examination, " she smiled. "Well, you have good reflexes, so I think you just need time and some training sessions to be back to your old capacity. Here's your not for Headmistress Kirova. Oh, hello Guardian Belikov."

"Hello, Dr. Olendzki. How's Rose doing?" Dimitri smiled at me.

"She's doing very well. I think she can be as good as new with a little work. I'm prescribing some pain medication for when you start training again," she handed me the two papers.

"Well, if you don't mind I have to take Rose to her next meeting," Dimitri helped me up.

"Thank you Dr. Olendzki," I smiled.

"You're very welcome, Rose. If you need anything just come see me," she smiled back at me.

After we left I asked Dimitri, "What's my next meeting?"

"Alberta wants to see you. She's the head Guardian around here. I didn't tell her anything yet, so I don't know she might want to yell at you, don't take it personally. She doesn't know what's going on," Dimitri answered.

"Great," I mumbled.

"Just tell her what's going on if she starts yelling at you, she might leave you be. Most of the time she's pretty level headed. Right in here, I was told I'm not allowed to come in. I'll be waiting right here for you though," he held open the door for me.

"Excuse me, is Alberta here?" there were a couple Guardians standing around talking so I didn't know which one she was.

"Rose, have you gone blind? I'm right here," an older, weathered-looking woman said.

"Or maybe she just thinks she's too good for us now that's she's been out in the real world," a man sneered.

"Now, Stan, that's enough," Alberta said.

"I don't think that. Dimitri said you wanted to see me," I said softly.

"Yes, I wanted to know what in God's name you were thinking when you and Vasilisa ran away!" she shouted. Great.

"I don't know," I answered quietly.  
"You don't know? Rose, you've done a lot of stupid things in your past, but you've always had a reason," she was still yelling.

"You don't get it! I literally don't know! I pushed Lissa out of the way of an oncoming car and it hit me. Ever since then people have been having to tell me my life story, my favorite color, the foods I eat. I don't know anything about my best friend or myself or I don't know, ANYTHING. So, if you want to continue yelling at me go ahead, just remember the past weeks of my life have been hell," I looked at both of them in the eye.

"Rose, I didn't know. What happened to you?" Alberta asked, Stan just rolled his eyes and left.

"I can't tell you much. I woke up in the hospital, they told me I was in a car accident, was almost paralyzed, and then put me in a foster home. I wasn't in my new home a month when while I was walking home that monster grabbed me. I don't know how long they kept me before my mom rescued me. There was a big fight, my spine was already messed up, and when they stabbed me it got a lot worse. I got the doctor to lie and tell them it wasn't as bad as it was, I died, on the table. I don't want Lissa to know though, so don't say anything," I explained everything to her, and it was the truth. While in surgery I did die, I just got the doctor keep that confidential.

"You are the luckiest person I know, I don't know of anyone else who's died and come back to life as much as you, well you know with out being Strigoi. You said they put you in a foster home, where was Vasilisa?" she asked.

I felt a tightness in my chest, "She abandoned me." After I said that I had trouble breathing, I think I might be having a panic attack.

"Rose, are you okay?" Alberta looked concerned.

"Get… Dimitri…" I huffed. Alberta ran outside, two minutes later she came back in with him by her side.

"Rose, what's wrong? Alberta, clear the room," Dimitri sprang into action.

"I can't breath, I think I'm having a panic attack," I said slowly.

"Okay, Alberta can you give us some room?" she nodded and left. "Roza, listen to me, you'll be okay. Whatever you're thinking about right now, just let it go from your mind. Just focus on me," he hugged me tightly.

"People always leave," I cried into his shoulder.

"I will never leave you, Roza. Calm down, baby. It's going to be all right, I promise everything will be okay," he kissed my forehead. I could feel my heart slowing and my breathing regulating.

"Thank you, I feel better, " I smiled up at him and took his hand in mine.

"You don't have to thank me. I want to be able to help you with things like that. Are you okay now?" Dimitri murmured.

"Yeah, I think I'll be fine," I said softly.

"You have one more meeting today, with Kirova. You think you can handle it?" he asked.

"Will you come with me?" I looked up at him.

"Sure, if you need me there, that' where I'll be. We're already late, we should go. On the bright side, I already know why she's called you in, and it's not to yell," he smiled knowingly.

"What does she want?"

"Oh, don't make me ruin the surprise!"

We walked quickly to Kirova's office, well Dimitri walked, I kind of limped, "Rose, Guardian Belikov, come in! Now, let's get right to business, Rose I've had your school transcripts sent over and I was just curious if you were really in all AP classes?"

"Yes, I was they made me take a test before enrolling to see which classes were suitable for me. You seem surprised that I'm smart," I was slightly offended.

"No, no, Rose, don't take this the wrong way. It's just the Rose I knew didn't care much for her studies, just physical training. Anyway, I called you in here to see if you wanted to be moved up in your classes. I know you can handle the work load and since you can't start your combat classes right away I thought this would be a good distraction," she smiled.

"I'm good at school, it's easy for me, when you're life's a jumble, cold hard facts you can find in books are comforting. So, why not, I'll move up. You'll have to tell the teacher's I'll need some time to catch up before they begin testing me," the truth is, I don't give a crap what classes they put me in.

"Wonderful! This way you can even graduate with Vasilisa," she smiled.

"Lissa and I left at the same time, we're returning at the same time. Why would she be graduating before me?" I was slightly confused.

"Well, although you can go to classes, you can't really train in your condition. I talked to Alberta and Dr. Olendzki if you take your academic classes for the first half of the year, the combat classes the second, we all agree you could graduate on time. Even if you're not at a level you were before you left, Rose, you've proven yourself, people respect you now," Kirova explained.

"So, basically what you're saying is, I have to work ten time harder then my peers to even be considered for graduation? I heard what you said about respect, but let's be honest, that's a load of bull. I'm giving myself one more week on these crutches, then I'm going back to training, and to the advanced classes. Does that sound acceptable to you?" I asked.

"Rose, you were seriously injured. No one expects you to be back to training in a week. We all know of your potential, you just need to pass your academic classes really," Kirova tried to reason with me.

"That may be all I need to do, but it's not all I want to do. I want to do this, so just let me," I was getting annoyed.

"Well, I can't stop you, you'll basically have the same schedule as Vasilisa now, except while she's in her strictly Moroi classes you'll be in combat classes," she seemed disappointed that she wasn't getting her way.

We left after that, "You know what you just did?" Dimitri asked.

"Get the classes I wanted, when I wanted to take them?" I didn't see the big deal in that, but apparently he did.

"You just stood up to Kirova. You basically told her what to do. No one's ever done that before," he sounded slightly amazed. "There's two hours until dinner, I'll take you to your room to rest before that," he said.

We passed Lissa and Christian on the way to my room, "Hey, Rose! How was your first day?" Lissa asked.

"It was just a lot of talking. How was yours?"

"The classes were fine, but the stares I got, it was just like last time. Which you don't remember, I'm sorry," she apologized.

"It's okay. How was yours, Christian?" I asked mainly to be polite.

"My classes are good, and I don't get the stares because no one really notices me. Which makes it a lot easier," he smiled.

"You two better get to Kirova's office, she'll be expecting you," Dimitri said.

"See you at dinner, Rose!" Lissa smiled, and her and Christian walked away.

Dimitri had to stop at the entrance to the dorms, "I have to help Rose get up to her room," he told the guy by the door.

"Of course, Guardian Belikov," the guy held the door open for us. Thankfully, there was an elevator so I didn't have to walk up the stairs.

"That was nice, with Christian. I know you're uncomfortable around him, but it's nice that you're trying," he unlocked my door.

"Is it that obvious, still? Why do you have a key to my room?" I asked.

"He understands, what you all went through in Spokane was traumatic, and you don't remember everything. Just that he hurt you, he get's it. It's your key, you left it here when Lissa and you ran away," he explained.

"When are we going to tell people?" I knew he would know that I was referring to our engagement.

"I saw you weren't wearing your ring, I thought you didn't want people to know yet," he said quietly.

"I took it off because I didn't know how to tell people, people I don't know," I explained why I had taken it off.

"Kirova and Alberta agreed to change my schedule, so I'm working in all your classes. We can tell people now and if anyone says anything I'll be there for you," he thought of ideas.

"Okay, the first person we should tell is Lissa, Adrian and Adrianna, and I guess my mom. Anyone you want to tell before it gets out?" I asked.

"I call my mother tonight, she'll make sure my whole family knows in a matter of minutes," he joked. "You should get some rest," he got up.

"Can you stay?" I grabbed his hand.

"Well, were telling everyone anyway, my staying will be suspicious but okay, I'll stay," we lay down on my bed. Dimitri put his arm around me and I closed my eyes and fell asleep. I could imagine the rest of my life like this, with Dimitri, I knew then that we were going to be okay, everything was going to be okay.


	18. Chapter 18

**Chapter EIGHTEEN: Back to Normal?**

**Lissa's POV**

Christian and I stopped quickly at the counselor's office to pick up our schedules. We were surprised when our schedules matched. We figured they wouldn't want us anywhere near each other. Maybe they'll just put Rose on house arrest again, that would be horrible.

_1__st__ Period Russian 4_

_ 2__nd__ Period American Colonial Literature 2_

_ 3__rd__ Period Advanced Elemental Control_

_ 4__th__ Period Ancient Poetry 4_

_ - Lunch -_

_ 5__th__ Period Animal Behavior and Physiology 2_

_ 6__th__ Period Advanced Calculus 2_

_ 7__th__ Period Moroi Culture 4_

_ 8__th__ Period Slavic Art 2_

Not too bad, they have us in a lot of advanced classes so I can graduate on time though. I don't really mind. The only thing I did mind was everyone staring at me in all my classes. They seemed surprised that I actually came back, and it was annoying. It was just like last time. They left Christian alone, he's always been invisible though. Lucky him. Maybe he doesn't like being invisible, I don't know. I can never tell with him. He's so secretive.

The first day of classes went by quickly, and we started towards Kirova's office. I saw Rose and Dimitri heading towards the Dampir dorms, she looked exhausted, "Hey, Rose! How was your first day?"

"It was just a lot of talking. How was yours?" she asked.

"The classes were fine, but the stares I got, it was just like last time. Which you don't remember, I'm sorry," wow, I'm so stupid.

"It's okay," Rose is always so understanding, it's almost annoying, "How was yours, Christian?" I could tell through the bond she was still uncomfortable with him.

"My classes are good, and I don't get the stares because no one really notices me. Which makes it a lot easier," he joked around with her.

"You two better get to Kirova's office, she'll be expecting you," Dimitri said.

"See you at dinner, Rose!" I yelled after us as Christian and I walked away.

"It's nice to be home, well kind of," I mumbled.

"It's nice to be here, with you," Christian took my hand. We got to Kirova's office and knocked on the door.

"Come in," oh God, she sounds pissed.

"Hello, Headmistress Kirova," we greeted her.

"Sit down."

"What did you want to see us about?" Christian asked.

"You both are being put on probation and house arrest. Do I need to explain why or are you both clear on what you did?" she asked.

"What did I do?" Christian asked.

"Well, Mr. Ozera, you also left school. Rose almost died. Do you really think you didn't do anything wrong?"

"But-"

"Christian, just let it go," I cut him off.

"Yes, that's very smart, Mr. Ozera. Now, for your punishment, like I said academic probation and house arrest until further notice. Maybe until graduation even," she said.

"Will Rose also be on house arrest and probation?" I asked quietly.

"No, she's been through enough already," Kirova, muttered. The headmistress seems to actually like Rose; we always thought she hated Rose more than anything. "It's just about dinner time, you two may leave. Shut the door on your way out."

We left in a hurry; we only had an hour and a half of freedom before we were going to be locked away in our rooms until graduation. We went straight to the cafeteria to see if Rose was there. We didn't see her, but we did see Mia though.

"Oh my God, Lissa, Christian!" she called us over to where she was sitting.

"Hey, Mia. How are you?" I asked her.

"I'm fine. Where the hell have you been? Where's Rose? I haven't seen her all day," she looked slightly worried.

"Uhm, don't tell anyone. It's not some big secret but we don't need everyone talking about us again," she nodded. I knew I could trust her, after Spokane well she changed. Maybe even for the better. "First, we went to New York, went to school for a while. Then, there was an accident. Rose lost her memory. The hospital sent her to live with some foster family. While living there she was kidnapped by some Strigoi. They took her to Russia, it took us a while but we finally tracked her down and rescued her. After that we just came back here."

"Is she okay?" Mia looked scared.

"She will be," I answered quietly. Christian grabbed my hand to comfort me; he started tracing circles on my hand with his thumb.

"Hey, Rose," Christian smiled behind Mia. I looked up and grinned and Mia jumped up and hugged her.

"Hi Mia," she nearly grunted. I could tell Mia nearly jumping on her hurt, a lot.

"Oh, Rose, I didn't realize. I'm so sorry!" Mia apologized profusely.

"It's okay," she sat down. "Did you guys already eat?"

"No, do you want me to get you something when we go up?" I asked her.

"Sure, thanks," she smiled.

"We'll be right back," Christian said while we got up. "What do you think she wants?" he asked.

"I don't know, we'll just get her a little of everything. Oh, hey Dimitri," I hadn't even noticed he had walked up.

"Hey Lissa, Christian. Mind if I join you guys for dinner?" he asked.

"Sure, we're grabbing Rose's dinner too," I said inspecting the fettuccini; it didn't look that appetizing. Christian and I had already gotten our own dinner we were just figuring out Rose's.

"I'll get it. Go sit down, I'll be there in a moment," he started grabbing food and putting it on a plate.

"Where's my food? Don't tell me you forgot that quickly?" Rose laughed when we sat back down.

"No, we didn't forget. Dimitri is getting it for you. He's eating with us," Christian explained.

"Here you go, Rose," Dimitri placed a plate of food in front of Rose and sat down with his own plate.

"I'm glad you're all back and for the most part safe. I got to go, I sort of have a date. So, I'll catch up with you guys later," Mia got up.

"Oh, okay see you later," I smiled. I was glad she had a date. After Andre and Aaron she deserves someone good in her life.

"See you later, Mia," Rose smiled up at her. I could tell Rose wanted to tell me something, I just couldn't tell what it was. As soon as Mia was out of earshot Rose murmured to Dimitri, "Should we tell them now?"

"Do you want it to be this public when you tell them?" he murmured back.

"We're on house arrest so this is your only chance," I answered for Rose.

"Okay then, well Dimitri and I are, uhm, engaged…" I heard the words, but they just didn't make sense.

"What?" I was so confused. Christian just stared with his mouth wide open.

"To be married," Rose shrugged.

"Can you do that? You're Guardian's. You're Lissa's Guardian's," Christian asked.

"I'm eighteen, so yeah we can. And you should know we wouldn't put Lissa in danger. The job would come first," Rose explained.

"I'm confused, but I think it's great. I'm so excited for you!" Lissa grinned.

"We're going to tell people, but we're going to do it on our own time. So, if you could just keep this to yourselves," Dimitri said softly.

"Yeah, we want to make sure we tell our friends and family before it gets out, so it's not such a big shock," Rose said.

"We won't tell anyone, we promise," I'm so happy for her. Finally, something great is happening in Rose's life.

"I don't really have anyone to tell, so you can trust me," Christian smiled.

"Thanks, well we're off to tell Adrian and Adrianna," Rose said. Dimitri got up quickly and helped Rose up. They are so cute together!

"I'm glad, Rose is finally getting something she wants," I said softly to Christian.

"Yeah, her life is… well, I'm glad too. I'm just worried about you," he whispered back.

"Christian, I'm going to be with you most of the time, so you'll have two Guardians, and I'll have Rose and Dimitri. We both know Rose would never let anything happen to me," I pleaded with him to understand.

"So, do you ever think maybe we'll…?" Christian looked down.

"Get married?" I asked, shocked.

"Well, yeah, I mean someday. Maybe after college, or I don't know," he looked up at me and smiled.

"Are you asking me or making a plan to ask me?" I laughed.

"Mm, making a plan. I love you and all, but we both know we're too young. Rose may be eighteen years old, but she's obviously much more mature than that, her and Dimitri are ready. We just aren't. For a marriage to work you need more then just pure love. And I do love you, I love you more than anything in the world."

"I love you too. Oh, and when did you become such an expert on marriage?" I asked chuckling.

"My aunt Tasha made sure I knew everything about everything important, she's sort of great that way," he smiled. I can't believe how hard I've fallen for him. I kissed him, since we've gotten back together it's been sort of hectic and we haven't really been together. I must say this is the best kiss I have ever had. We finally pulled away, "That was nice," Christian murmured.

"We just haven't been together, since we got back together. I missed who we used to be; I want to go back that. Or better yet, I want to be better than that," I explained.

"I miss it too, and yeah we could be better, but we love each other, and that's the most important thing. Dinner's over, we have to get back to our rooms, getting in trouble on our first night back probably isn't the best idea. I'll walk you to your dorm," we threw out our trash and Christian and me walked to my dorm hand in hand. "I love you, I'll see you in class tomorrow."

"I love you too," I said. Christian smiled and walked away. I shut and locked my door behind him.


	19. Chapter 19

**Chapter NINETEEN: Breaking hearts and PTSD**

**Rose's POV**

"Thanks, well we're off to tell Adrian and Adrianna," I said. Dimitri was quick to stand and help me up.

"Are you ready to do this? To break his heart?" Dimitri asked.

"It doesn't matter if I'm ready, I have to do this. It's only fair to you and to him really, he knows that I love you, that this could happen one day," I whispered.

I knocked on his door, he opened the door after a couple minutes, "Oh, hey, come on in, I guess."

"Is Adrianna here?" I asked looking around.

"Yeah, she's unpacking. She'll be staying with me for a while. Kirova's order's, since she's a spirit user Kirova wants all the information she can from us. I don't know. I'll go get her. Sit, make yourself comfortable," Adrian said, disappearing into one of his guest rooms.

"Is it just me, or is he being odder than usual?" Dimitri whispered.

"I don't know, but it might be because we're together," I whispered back.

"Rose! How are you?" Adrianna came running out smiling, Adrian at a slower pace behind her.

"I'm good. How are you two?" I asked.

"Well, I'm fine. _He's_ still a pain in the ass," Adrianna muttered the end.

"_I'm_ the pain in the ass? Yeah, okay. Anyway, what can we do for you? Or is this just a social visit?" Adrian asked.

"You told me at the hospital you were ready to move on," Dimitri started.

"And you told me, while I was still with those dream things, that I loved him very, very much. So, when he proposed, I knew that my answer had to be yes," I explained. We were mainly talking to Adrian because of our odd triangle thing.

"Is that it?" Adrian asked. He looked mad. Something I said set off another panic attack. I couldn't answer, the pressure was on my chest my again, I could barely breathe. There was a voice ringing through my head, _fine, but Rose, if they come for you, don't say I didn't warn you!_ Oh god, Vanessa. "Rose are you okay?" Adrian asked.

Dimitri looked over at me, "Rose, stop thinking about them. Don't worry about them, they can't hurt you." Dimitri again quickly sprang into action.

"What's going on?" Adrian demanded.

I finally calmed enough to answer him, "I have PTSD. Post traumatic stress disorder. The doctor says it's not uncommon for people to get the disorder after accidents like that," I explained. A sudden thought struck me, "I need to go back." "Uhm, now I'm lost," Adrianna said confusedly.

"I had a friend there, she told me about Strigoi even before I had my first dream about Spokane. She's in danger if they know she knows about them," I said quickly.

"Vanessa, the crazy one? Rose, I know you want to protect everyone, but I can't just take off again. I have a job here. You need to finish school," Dimitri said.

"To get her to safety would only be a weekend trip, we can't just leave her there to die," I begged.

"I'll take her," Adrian said suddenly.

"I don't think that's a good idea," Dimitri was getting irritated.

"We can take some Guardians, get in, get out, won't be a problem," Adrian argued.

"I'll go with them too, since I'm physic I can see if any Strigoi are coming our way," Adrianna added.

"Is this something you really need to do?" Dimitri asked me. I nodded. "I'll assemble a team for you. Lissa stays here." I nodded my head again, agreeing to his terms and conditions. "Okay, if your not back in 48 hours I'm going to go searching for you again, and I don't think Kirova will be as forgiving as she was today," I didn't doubt he was completely serious. "I'll go set up a team," Dimitri stood, said goodbye, kissed me on the cheek and left.

"Thank you, Adrian," I said after a few moments of awkward silence.

"Rose, you know I'd do anything for you, it's really not a problem. Besides I liked it off campus, I'm thinking about leaving again, after Kirova is done experimenting with Spirit and all. I want to get back to the world," Adrian explained.

"Leaving? Where would you go?" I asked. Adrian just looked down and didn't answer me.

"Do you need help packing, Rose? We'll be leaving in a few hours, we should probably be ready," Adrianna asked.  
"Yeah, thanks," I got up and Adrianna and me went back to my dorm. Packing only took about twenty minutes. Dimitri knocked on the door shortly after that.

"Are you ready?" he asked.

"Yeah, oh Adrianna, do you have a bag ready?" I just realized she didn't pack a bag before we left her and Adrian's housing.

"I got Adrian to do it while I helped you," she smiled.

"Okay, let's go. You're traveling with three Guardians, Serena, Grant, and even Alberta agreed to join you," he explained while we walked to the main gates.

"I don't think I'm going to bring my crutches," I said, Dimitri stopped walking.

"Why's that?" he asked.

"I just don't think I'll be needing them," I answered and started walking again, Adrian fell into step with us.

"You know you're crazy right?" Dimitri asked.

"Yeah, but that's why people love me," I answered. We got to the gate that's where we had to part ways.

"The Guardians are pulling up in an SUV they'll be here any second," Dimitri turned to leave.

"Wait," I grabbed at his arm, he turned around, "I'll see you in 48 hours, or less," I smiled. Dimitri smiled too; he hugged me tightly and kissed my forehead. We didn't want to show of too much PDA in front of Adrian. That would just be cruel.

"Be careful, Rose. You can't handle too much more right now," he said before walking away. The SUV pulled up after that, we all loaded our bags into the trunk.

"I'm sort of surprised you wanted to go back so soon, Rose. Then, I remember you're Rose and it makes sense. This is Serena and Grant. They're new. Be nice. What's your plan?" Alberta asked.

"Yeah, we're sort of wondering that too," Adrianna, said.

"Stay out of my thoughts," Adrian muttered.

"Well, I'll tell her I believe her and that she's in danger if she doesn't come with us. She'll listen to that. She's seen a Strigoi kill a little girl, she knows what they're capable of," I explain.

"How did she see something like that without one of them knowing she was there and killing her?" Grant asked.

"I don't know, but she's alive and she's in danger. So, let's go," I said. We rode mostly in silence to the train-station. We all slept on the hour and a half ride back to Missoula.

"Rose, wake up," Adrian gently shook my shoulder. It vaguely reminded me of when Dimitri woke me up on the plane to propose.

"Are we there?" I rubbed my eyes.

"Almost, I wanted to talk, if that's okay with you," he nodded towards the seat next to me, asking if he could sit.

"Yeah, sure, sit. What's up?" I asked.

"I didn't get a chance to talk to you before you went into your attack thing and we left and everything. I wanted to talk to you about, well more ask you about is, is this really what you want? With Dimitri, I mean. I know I told you that you loved him, but you're sort of rushing things. Don't you think?" he whispered.

"I know that I don't remember much of anything, but I did have one memory before Spokane. When I woke up alone in the hospital, I remembered his eyes. Lissa erased all my memories. I had to have held on pretty damn tight to him to at least have that when I woke up. Although, I don't know every detail about him, I know that he makes me feel safe and protected and loved and he'd never do anything to hurt me. Adrian, I love you, just not the way I love him. Please don't ruin this for me," I begged.

"I won't, I just don't want to see you get upset. If he ever does anything to hurt you, I will come after him," Adrian was completely serious.

"I wouldn't expect anything less," I smiled. He smiled back. We spent the last fifteen minutes talking. "Why did you agree to come with me?"

"Dimitri couldn't, and it's something you wanted. I had to," he said.

"Alright everyone, let's go," Alberta commanded. "Where are we going, Rose?" she asked.

"I had a foster home here, so we can stay there. We'll go get her in the morning," I said. It was about two in the morning, so I don't think anyone would answer the door if we show up now. I led the way around the city. The door was unlocked; Alberta and Grant went in first to make sure it was all safe. No Strigoi were there, just Linda and Michael sleeping peacefully.

"All clear," Grant called out to the hall. We shuffled in, being in there was surreal. I went to my room it seemed like it was so long ago that I was here last.

"You okay?" Adrianna asked.

"It's just hard to think that I'll never be a normal girl again, well I guess I'll be normal for me, but I won't be like a normal human anymore," I tried to explain.

"Rose, you may not be the normal human anymore, but you'll be the normal Dampir again. The one we all know and miss. The one that you loved being," she tried to comfort me.

"How do I love being someone I don't remember?" I asked; I didn't really expect an answer. Adrian, Adrianna, and me all went to sleep while Serena, Grant, and Alberta stayed on guard. They woke us up early to get a head start on the day. We walked quickly to Vanessa and Lindsey's house; I pounded on the door.

Their mother answered, "Rose? Oh my goodness! Everyone's been looking for you! Where have you been?"

"I just found my way home. I'm sorry, but is Vanessa here? It's important that I talk to her, right now," I demanded.

"Okay, she's in her room. You know the way," Vanessa's mother looked severely confused.

Vanessa got the basement bedroom to herself; Lindsey thought it was creepy in the dank dark basement. "Vanessa! Vanessa, where are you?" I yelled around the room looking for her.

"Rose? Is that you?" Vanessa came out of the bathroom. "Oh, and you brought friends. What's going on?"

"Nessa, we got to go, like now," I demanded.

"Go? Go where?" she asked.

"I believe you, and that means you're in danger. If you doesn't come with us they'll come and kill you. You've seen that monster kill that little girl, you know what they're capable of," I said.

"They got you didn't they? That's where you've been, those things had you, oh my God, Rose, and we've got to leave now. Where are we going?" she asked, that was a lot easier than I thought it would be.

"My old school. It's like a boarding school, so there's guest housing and everything. It's just, once you come, you won't ever be able to come back here, or see Lindsey or your mom again," I explained.

"We both know they think I'm crazy, I don't think they'd notice if I just disappeared," she laughed. "So, who'd your friends?" she looked pointedly behind me at everyone.

"Oh, sorry, this is Adrian, Adrianna, Alberta, Grant, and Serena. Everyone this is Vanessa," I introduced people.

"Wait, you're twins, and your names are Adrian and Adrianna?" Vanessa tried not to laugh.

"I actually didn't know I was sharing my name with anyone until recently. No one felt the need to tell me I had a sister," Adrian said, he still looked slightly annoyed about that.

"Oh, Adrian, shut up," Adrianna wacked him on the arm.

"Okay, everyone now that we got Vanessa on board we should go," Alberta looked anxious to leave.

"Sure, let me just pack some stuff really quick," Vanessa pulled a bag and some clothes out of her closet, she moved quickly over to her dresser and got more garments out. She didn't pack them nicely, she just shoved them in her bag, "Alright, I'm ready." Alberta nodded, we weren't that worried about Strigoi because they can't go out in sunlight. The Guardians were on alert as always, but I didn't think we'd run into any troubles.

We drove quickly to the train station, wanting to get back to St. Vlad's before sundown. "Won't you miss your family?" Adrian asked Vanessa after a while.

"Adrian!" that's really not any of his business, and we don't need Vanessa to get upset and chicken out and go home now.

"Rose, it's okay. Sure, I'll miss my mom and Linds but when it comes to people who avoid me over my life. I think I'm going to choose to live," she shrugged.

"Now, why would anyone want to avoid you?" he asked. If I didn't know any better I would say he's definitely flirting with her. By the look on Adrianna's face it looks like she thinks he is too.

"When you go to your family saying monsters are real they aren't very welcoming of the idea," she answered. Adrian didn't have anything to say after that, none of us really did. I sat with Vanessa on the train, "So, Rose, what happened? And don't say nothing because you're limping, so obviously something did."

"Uhm, there's not really anything to tell. They got me, took me all the way to Russia, my birth mother rescued me, apparently it's her job to do stuff like that, then they took me back to school," I didn't want to tell her about Moroi and Guardians just yet, all that information could just freak her out.

"Your mother? Did you get your memory back?" she asked.

"No, working on it though," I smiled.

"Girls, let's go," Serena called us. We looked around realizing we were the only ones left on the train.

We got off the train; it was nighttime, not good. The Guardians formed a protective circle around us while still keeping up a normal appearance. Dimitri was waiting on the platform; I wasn't expecting him to be here. He smiled when he saw me, "Alberta, would you be upset if I ran at Dimitri? I mean I'm going from Guardians to another Guardian."

She was confused, "Okay?"

I ran to Dimitri and jumped into his arms and he spun me around, I knew Alberta, Serena, and Grant hadn't been expecting this but whatever. "Hey, comrade," I smiled at him.

"What did you just call me?" Dimitri smiled.

"I don't know, actually. It just sort of came out," I was sort of confused as to why I said it. He put me down and kissed my forehead. "I missed you."

"I missed you too. You must be Vanessa," Dimitri held out his hand towards the group that had just reached us.

"I am. Rose didn't tell me about you," Vanessa smiled.

"I'm Dimitri," I nodded, telling him to tell her about the engagement, "I'm her fiancé." Alberta was shocked; it was actually kind of funny.

"You're getting married? Damn, leave you alone for two months and you get engaged," she laughed. I can honestly say that I like Vanessa so much more now that I know she's not crazy.

"Well, you know, I like to live life on the edge. More fun that way," I smiled. Something she said bothered me though. I waited until Dimitri and me were alone in my room later though, "Two months? They had me for two months?"

"Yes, but some of that time was in the hospital. They had you for six weeks, you were in the hospital for two, in a coma, and we didn't want to tell you. We got the doctor to keep quiet, you had been through enough," he explained.

"You should have told me. Why didn't you tell me?" I wanted a real answer besides I had been through enough. That's bullshit.

"Because we didn't want you to know that you're condition was that bad. You're fine now though, just be grateful you're alive," he didn't want to fight I could tell, but who doesn't tell you when you've been in a coma for two weeks?

"You're right. And I am grateful. But you still should have told me."

"Okay, I'm sorry I didn't want to upset you. I just thought everyone should take it easy on you. I won't do it again. Now, can we call my mother and tell her the news or did you change your mind because of this?" he asked.

"Change my mind? I would never change my mind about you, Dimitri. Call her and we'll all talk," I smiled. He got out his cell phone out and dialed the number. This is the part of the conversation I wouldn't get too much of.

He had already put it on speakerphone, "ApaBCTByNte?" (Hello?)

"ApaBCTByNte, MaMa." (Hello, mother.)

"Tbi B nopRAKe?" (Are you okay?)

"Y MeHR BCe HopManbHo. Roza xopowo. Mvi Ha CaMoM Aene ecTb, yto ckaeaTb, Bam." (I'm fine. Rose is fine. We actually have something to tell you.)

"Oh, really? And what is that?" her accent was heavy, but somewhat understandable.

"Roza and I, well we are going to get married," Dimitri said hesitantly.

"I am assuming she's right next to you?" Dimitri's mom asked.

"Hello, Ms. Belikov," I spoke up.

"Ah, Roza! You're going to be family now! Call me mama," she laughed.

"You're okay with this right?" Dimitri asked.

"Dimka, you better know that this decision has nothing to do with me and everything to do with the two of you. If you love each other enough then of course I'm okay with it. I would like to actually meet Roza before the wedding if that's okay with both of you, though," she said.

"Of course, after graduation when everyone has their vacation. Before I go on official duty, we can go visit your family for a couple weeks," I suggested.

"I think that's a great idea. Don't you, Dimka?" Ms. Belikov asked.

"It sounds wonderful. Mom we have to head out to dinner, so can we call you later?" Dimitri said ready to end the conversation.

"Oh, yes. Just don't forget to call me back, young man! I love you."

"Alright, I love you too, Mom," Dimitri hung up. "Well that went pretty good I think," he smiled.

"Yeah, your mom seems really cool. Are you ready for dinner?" I asked, I was starving; I hadn't eaten anything since yesterday.

"Sure, let's go. Do you want your crutches?" he asked.

"No, I don't think I need them anymore. As long as I'm not running any marathons," I said.

"Good, I'm glad you're getting better," he smiled. He helped me up and we started our walk to the cafeteria. Vanessa met us half way there, "Hi, Vanessa," we both said.

"Hey. Really? You're one of those couples? Okay. Are we going to dinner?" she asked smiling.

"One of what couples? And, yes, we're going, doing you want to come?" I asked her laughing.

"You know, the ones that say the same thing at the same time. They have the same thought process," she explained.

"You're totally making that up as you go!" I laughed. We got to the cafeteria and Lissa and Christian were already there. They didn't know about Vanessa yet, and looked confused. "Hey, Lissa, Christian, this is my friend Vanessa. From my old school," I introduced them.

"You're old school? Like in Missoula?" Lissa asked, still confused.

"Yeah, she knows about the monsters, so she was in danger. Over the weekend a couple people and me went and brought her back here for her safety," I explained. _She doesn't know that everyone one here is a vampire, so don't say anything,_ I thought that Lissa should hear me through the bond.

"How did you find out about 'monsters'?" Christian asked; he was smart enough to stick with the word monster instead of saying Strigoi.

"I saw them kill someone before, it was a little girl. She didn't do anything wrong and they just killed her," she said, her voice cracked from the memory.

"How did you get away?" Lissa asked

"I just ran as fast as I could, as far away as I could. They chased me for a couple blocks, then just got bored of me I guess, they disappeared, I don't know where they went. I ran home, locked all the doors and windows, and hid in my closet. The next morning Lindsey found me in there shaking and crying, that's when she started thinking I was crazy," she explained.

"That sucks," Christian muttered.

"Yeah, kind of," she laughed. We showed her where the kitchen was and we finally got dinner.

"Hey, Vanessa," Adrian walked up to us smiling. She smiled and nodded her head at him.

"Well, hello to you too," I said in mock anger at his lack of acknowledgement of Dimitri and me.

"Oh, Rose, hi," he still was ignoring us, what the hell.

"Well, I can see we're not wanted here," I said, Adrian and Vanessa were talking to each other. "He likes her, I can tell," I said to Dimitri on the way back to the table.

"So? Is there a problem with that?" he asked.

"She's human, he's not. That could be problematic," I whispered.

"I'm sure she'll figure out none of us are human some time or another, just let him be happy, Roza," he said back.

"Why can't he be happy with someone of his own race?" I asked. Dimitri just laughed at that. We sat down, "She doesn't know about more than Strigoi, and I don't know how to tell her yet. Thanks for not saying anything," I smiled at them.

"That's really bizarre that they just let her go like that," Christian said, watching her and Adrian.

"I agree; it's not common for Strigoi to let people go, especially humans. They are usually easy kills," Dimitri added.

"They're coming, change the subject," I said.

"Rose, when are you coming back to classes?" Lissa asked just as they got to the table and sat.

"Monday, I'm going to classes, and I'll slowing be getting back into… gym classes. My back and legs still can't handle that," I smiled. Luckily, the full moon was tonight and I would have my memory back by then. "Liss, we're still meeting tonight for that thing, right?" I asked.

"Oh, God, that's tonight? I'm on house arrest, but if I knew a person who could break me out that could help," she looked pointedly at Dimitri.

"I could get in a lot of trouble for that, but I'll do it. Be ready at three, I don't think I can get both of you out so, Christian you'll have to stay in your dorm," he shrugged.

"That's okay, as long as what has to be done, get's done. I'm done here, I'll go back to my room now," he smiled.

"What are you guys talking about?" Vanessa asked.

"Nothing important. Uhm, Adrianna wants to see you after dinner, the principal here kind of put her in charge of you. Since she's new and you're new she thought it'd be a good idea," Adrian shrugged.

Vanessa still looked skeptical, "Okay."

"In fact, I think she wanted you there a while ago. Are you done? I'll take you to her and my room," Adrian said.

"I guess, okay, let's go," Vanessa shrugged, that left Lissa, Dimitri, and me at the table; good, now we can talk.

"He's being weird," Lissa said.

"He's always weird. He was just trying to get rid of her so we could do what we have to do. Just a little diversion," I said. "You should get back to your room, Dimitri and I will come up with some excuse to get you out."

"Okay, but Adrian has to come. I know the principles of the ritual; he's the only one who actually knows what they're doing," she said leaving.

"Dimitri will get you, and I'll get him. Don't worry Liss, everything will work out," I smiled.

"It has to," she went back to her room.

"Okay, the big night is here. You figure out a cover story for Liss, and then go break her out. I'm going to go find Adrian, hopefully he isn't still with Vanessa, and if he is, she's just going to have to know the truth. Do you want to meet by the cabin?" I asked after explaining my plan.

"Okay. Do you have any suggestions for Lissa? You're more the conniving one; I'm the one who follows the rules. So, I don't have much experience with making excuses or the like," he was blabbering.

"Ha, okay, well neither do I at the moment. Tell the person at the desk Kirova wants to see her. If anyone stops you else say there's an emergency with me and we need Lissa's healing ability. If that doesn't work… hit someone," I shrugged.

"Oh great, your solution is to fight," he didn't look happy.

"If you can think of something better, by all means go ahead, but that's the only solution I see right now. I didn't say kill anyone, just knock them out," I explained.

"Okay, Rose. Just go find Adrian. We'll see you at the cabin in a little bit," he still sounded pissed. Ugh, I don't have time for that right now.

"I'm sorry, I know this people are your friends and you don't want to hurt them, but I'm your fiancé, and I need you to do this for me. I'm sorry, I love you," he didn't say anything so I just went off to Adrian.

I looked all around the school searching for him, where the hell is he? I checked his house last, figuring he'd be out somewhere with friends. I pounded on the door; Adrianna answered the door, "Rose? What's wrong?"

"Is he here?" I asked.

"He? Meaning Adrian? Yes, he's in his room. Go ahead, he just went in. He shouldn't be doing anything anyone wouldn't approve of," she pointed at his door.

I barged into his room; he was sitting on his bed staring off into space, "Are you okay?" he looked odd.

"Just trying to mentally prepare myself for tonight. Let's go," he answered. I nodded, but I wasn't sure that was it. He looked kind of pale and his eyes were distant, I was slightly worried about him.

"What'd you tell Vanessa?" I asked him on the way to the cabin.

"Adrianna talked to her for a few minutes then walked her back to her room, it was fairly easy," he shrugged.

"You like her," I stated.

"What?" he asked confusedly.

"You like my friend Vanessa, don't lie to me. I can tell," I smiled at him.

"Okay, maybe I like her, a little. I mean, it'll never work out though, she kind of hates vampires, and she has reason to. I could tell just not tell her I'm a Moroi and just keep it a secret," he said.

"I know Vanessa a little better than you, she wouldn't want you to lie to her, and she'd actually hate that. I think it'd eventually be safe to tell her what you are, once she knows what a great guy you are, once she knows that you won't hurt her, she'll be okay with it. We can tell her about this world, not right away, she needs time to adjust. And sure she'll be shocked, but she'll get over," I shrugged. I knew she would definitely be shocked but she is also definitely strong enough to get over it, and if Adrian liked her enough he should wait for her.

Five minutes later we arrived at the cabin, Dimitri and Lissa were already here. "Any problems?" I asked him as we approached.

"No, it didn't come it that," Dimitri said. Lissa and Adrian looked confusedly at one another, and then just shrugged.

"Good, I'm glad," I sent a small smile his way. His shoulders relaxed, and I could tell he wasn't as brooding as a moment before.

"Okay, the moon will be setting soon, we have to do this like now," Lissa hurried along anymore small talk. "Adrian, you know how to do this right?" Lissa looked slightly nervous.

"Of course I do! In theory, anyway, I haven't done it before but I have the directions," I wasn't so comfortable with the 'in theory' part, but I guess it's the best I got.

I noticed then Adrian had a backpack with him. He began unloading it's contents quickly and organizing them. He had four candles, a couple different herbs, and a big blanket, a knife, and a huge, musty, old book.

"Are we bringing back my memory or doing witchcraft here?" while technically, I am a creature that does not exist this is getting a little too 'Charmed' for my taste.

"Rose, you're a vampire. You can't believe there are creatures out there?" Adrian asked spreading out the blanket.

"You're telling me witches are real?" I asked not believing at all.

"Well, they used to. Most of them died in the witch hunts, and eventually their lines just died off altogether. I don't think there's been a recorded witch for at least seventy years," he explained lighting the candles, then scattering the herbs.

"Just out of morbid curiosity, what are you planning to do with that knife?" Dimitri asked.

Adrian picked it up and handed it to Lissa, "Me? Nothing. Lissa is going to cut her hand open, shallowly, of course, then she's going to cut Rose's hand. Lissa is the one who has to do it, she has the Spirit power and she caused all this. When they join hands Rose will have some of her Spirit for a couple minutes. After the blood, Rose, you have to repeat what I say word for word, quickly. You'll only have Spirit for a few moments," I nodded.

"You should start," Dimitri mumbled.

Adrian flipped through the book looking for something, "Alright, here it is. Lissa your hand," he nodded pointedly at the knife.

Lissa nodded, she didn't look nervous or scared anymore, she was determined. She cut into her delicate skin, "My blood," she said fiercely. She looked pained as she took my hand and sliced, "Your blood." I was actually scared for what happened next, we joined hands, both saying, "Our blood," like our lives depended on it, not really sure why. Then, there was a snap in the air a white light surrounded Lissa and I, it was blinding. **(So I know I just took that from Practical Magic… but I love that movie. So deal with it (: )**

"Rose!" I could barely hear Adrian yelling. Even though I knew he was telling me what to say I just couldn't understand what he was saying. Another snap. I know what to say, I don't know how and I don't know why. It's just like there was a voice whispering in my ear, it wasn't Adrian's, but the voice was telling me what to say.

"I call the past to meet the present, that the future may be bright, I bring myself forth from the dark, and hold me to the light. Let not the past control my present, let not my future be dark as night. Meet and greet me with open arms, and back into the light!" then the light that was surrounding Lissa and I was just around me. Getting closer and closer to me. Suddenly, my feet weren't on the ground anymore and wind was whipping around me. The bright light was getting brighter and brighter until I felt like I was in a supernova. Then, there was nothing. No bright, white, supernova light. No wind gushing around me. I fell to the blanket, exhausted.

Dimitri was at my side in a second, "Rose? Are you okay? Do you remember?" I didn't get the chance to answer him before passing out. I had dreams though. Dreams of when I was younger, Lissa didn't have anyone and neither, really, did I, so we took care of each other. Other dreams of before we ran away, the parties we went to. And Mason, I dreamed a lot about Mason.

I tried to open my eyes, but it's so bright I end up fluttering them. I'm vaguely aware someone is holding my hand. Finally, I get my eyes to open completely and see Dimitri clutching my hand, it doesn't look like he's left my side in days. How long have I been here? Looking around I determine that I'm in the infirmary. I squeeze his hand and his head shoots up, "I remember you," I smile at him.


	20. Chapter 20

**Chapter Twenty My love**

**Dimitri's POV**

She doesn't understand that these people I work with are the closest thing I have to friends. Sure, the old Rose did, but things have changed. I can't just go around punching out people who get in my way. The Moroi looked from her desk when I entered the dorm's common room, "Hello, Headmistress Kirova needs to speak to Vasilisa Dragomir. I've been sent to pick her up," I explained, it was almost easy to lie to the young Moroi. No wonder Rose has any trouble sneaking out so often. I knocked softly on Lissa's door, she opened it seconds later, ready to go, and we were off. We passed the desk with ease and as soon as we were outside we walked a little faster.

"Where is she?" Lissa was pacing.

"Looking for Adrian," I said, she kept looking up at the sky, maybe expecting the moon to have somehow vanished replaced by a sun.

A few minutes later I saw Rose and Adrian hurrying towards us. When they finally reached us Rose asked if we had any problems, meaning my coworkers.

"No, it didn't come to that," even I could tell I was being icy towards her.

"Good, I'm glad," she smiled at me, in that smile I saw the old Rose, I felt myself become less tense and relax a little.

Lissa looked up again, "Okay, the moon will be setting soon, we have to do this like now. Adrian, you know how to do this right?"

"Of course I do! In theory, anyway, I haven't done it before, but I have the directions," he said matter- of- factly. I didn't really approve of his wording but I'm really just here to get Lissa here.

Adrian began to unload his bag, Are we bring back my memory or doing witchcraft here?" Rose asked.

"Rose, you're a vampire. You can't believe there are other creatures out there?" Adrian spreading out the blanket while asking her.

"You're saying witches are real?" heavy skepticism was in her voice.

"Well, they used to. Most of them died in the witch-hunts, and then eventually their lines died off altogether. I don't think there's been a witch on record for at least seventy years," Adrian explained, who knew he could actually sound smart.

"Just out of curiosity, what are you planning to do with that knife?" I asked I had been eyeing ever since he took it out. He explained the long process of this strange ritual. I didn't really like it. I don't really have a choice, though now do I? "You should start now," I said, the sky will be getting lighter soon.

"Alright, here it is. Lissa, your hand," Adrian said after flipping the pages of the book for a few minutes.

It was then I noticed how strong the princess is, she cut into her flesh and barely flinched, "My blood," she said strongly. She took Rose's hand, but looked like she didn't want to cut into it, "Your blood." They joined their hands, "Our blood," the said fiercely. A bright white light flashed and closed around them.

"Adrian! What's going on?" I asked alarmed but he didn't answer me, he was telling Rose what to say. I heard a snap and the bubble of light began to get smaller until Lissa dropped out of it, but Rose stayed. It rose into the air, I could barely see Roza's figure, and it looked like there was some crazy wind in there. Then, it was gone.

Rose fell to the blanket, it didn't look like she was hurt, "Rose? Are you okay? Do you remember?" She didn't answer, her head just slumped to the side and her eyes rolled. Lissa, who had been right beside me, put her hands on Rose.

"It's not working! I don't know what's wrong!" Lissa cried. I was getting used to this with Rose.

"Adrian, take Lissa to her room, make sure she's okay. I'm taking rose to the infirmary," I took charge easily. I scooped Rose up in my arms bridal style and basically jogged to Dr. Olendzki.

Three days and she still hasn't woken up. I'm getting very worried, the doctor says physically she okay, she just has to wake up on her own terms, her own terms. Isn't that always how it is with my Roza? I must have dozed off because I can almost feel Rose squeezing my hand. I look up at her beautiful face; those chocolate brown eyes meet mine.

Before I can even utter a word, she makes my heart stop, "I remember you," and smiles that beautiful smile of hers.

"You remember me? What else do you remember?" I asked excitedly.

"Everything," she smiled, I couldn't contain myself, and I kissed her with so much passion, and didn't even care who saw.


	21. Chapter 21

**Chapter Twenty-one THE FUTURE**

**Rose's POV**

Finally I got my life back in order. Back on a track I could control. I got my memories back, my legs and back fully healed, graduated top of my class in academics and my Guardian skills, I became Lissa's Guardian, and married the man I love more than anything. I got everything I ever wanted, and more. By some genetic quirk, Dimitri and I were able to have a beautiful baby girl. We have no idea how or why, but we love her with all our hearts. Besides Lissa, she's our whole life, and we would do anything for her.

We decided her heritage was going to be a major factor in her life because so many Dampir children don't know both of their parents, so we decided on a very Russian name. Its Dimitri's favorite, beside's mine of course, Emilia. She'll soon be starting her training; my little girl is going to be one badass Guardian one day with Dimitri and me as parents. She so smart too, Lissa decided to start tutoring her early in case Emilia doesn't want to be a Guardian when she grows up. Which is fine with Dimitri and I, we just want her to be as happy as we are.

Lissa and Christian got married shortly after Dimitri and I. They are still extremely happy and so in love. After Tatiana died of a heart attack, Lissa, of course, became queen. I mean really, who didn't expect that? People quickly got over their distaste of Christian and his family. Everyone's happy with Lissa in charge. Soon they started their own family. The children took on the Dragomir name to continue on her family name. Andre and Rosalina. I wouldn't let them name her Rosemarie or just Rose, that's kind of awkward. Andre and Rosalina will get everything they ever want or need, Christian spoils them rotten, and they're still great kids though. Actually, Lissa and me think that one day Emilia and Andre will end up together, even though she's Dampir.

Even Adrian and Adrianna got happy endings. Shortly after I got my memories back Adrian told Vanessa everything, she was mad at first, but she came around. Just like I told him she would. They're getting married in less then a month; it's surprising how much they really love each other. No one thought Adrian was really capable of that kind of love, well he proved everyone wrong. Adrianna finally had a meeting with Tatiana, which really means huge fight, and got the family and title she deserved. She also found someone to love who loves her back, Eric Badica. At last Adrianna is happy.

The last of our group of friends, little, doll- like Mia Rinaldi, an enemy who became one of my closest friends. She also wound up happy and loved. No one saw it coming when she told us that Eddie and her were married, especially because he's her Guardian. But you can't always choose who you fall in love with. I would know, trust me. They had secretly eloped right after Eddie was assigned to her. They were only telling people about their marriage now because Mia is pregnant. Everyone's so happy for them.

We all got what we wanted out of life. We are all extremely happy at Court and couldn't ask for anything more.

"Mommy, can you help me?" Emilia's small voice rang out.

"Of course I can, honey," I scooped her up in my arms. Well, I guess some of us could ask for a little more.

**(Okay well that's the end! I hope you liked it and thank you so much for reading!)**


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